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Catalina Fly-by, Tony Cook

Catalina Fly-by

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Catalina Fly-by, Tony Cook

Catalina Fly-by

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Description

A panel showing four key moments as Catalina approaches its closest encounter with Earth and then flies by us - the comet is moving from right (closest to the sun) to left.

You can see a number of changes: first the coma grows and finally starts to shrink in size as the comet approaches and then retreats; the ion tail is strongest when the comet is nearest the sun and gradually fades as the comet moves further away from the sun; the coma is also brightest and densest when the comet is heated by the sun and gradually thins and becomes more transparent as the comet cools; the angular separation of Earth from the plane of the comets orbit is changing throughout this sequence and we can see this as the angle between the ion tail and the dust tail changes from our point of view; the dust tail is like a fan - thin in the plane of the comets orbit but with a broad spread when seen from the side.

The four panels have the same orientation - north to left. The key dates right to left are: 21st December 2015, 8th January 2016, 15th January 2016 and 30th January 2016.

Other images of C/2013 US10

29th December 2015

1st January 2016

9th January 2016

15th January 2016

31st January 2016

28th February 2016

30th March 2016

3D Stereo (relaxed eyes) 15th January 2016

3D Stereo (crossed eyes) 15th January 2016

Evolution sequence

Comments

Histogram

Catalina Fly-by, Tony Cook

In these public groups

Comets Imaging
Cloudy Nights