Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Fornax (For)  ·  Contains:  Solar system body or event

Image of the day 11/13/2018

    APOD: 2018 November 15 - Comet 46P Wirtanen, Alex Cherney
    APOD: 2018 November 15 - Comet 46P Wirtanen
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    APOD: 2018 November 15 - Comet 46P Wirtanen

    Image of the day 11/13/2018

      APOD: 2018 November 15 - Comet 46P Wirtanen, Alex Cherney
      APOD: 2018 November 15 - Comet 46P Wirtanen
      Powered byPixInsight

      APOD: 2018 November 15 - Comet 46P Wirtanen

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      Description

      Periodic Comet 46P/Wirtanen;s 5.4 year long looping orbit takes it closest to Earth and the Sun in mid December, 2018. Fluorescing in sunlight, its spherical coma is about half the angular size of a full moon in this southern hemisphere telescopic view from November 7. Then the comet was about 2 light-minutes away or 35 million kilometers from Earth-bound telescopes, so the pretty greenish coma seen here is around 150,000 kilometers across. That makes it about the size of Jupiter. The stack of digital images also reveals a very faint tail extending toward 4 o'clock with a distant background galaxy notable at the upper left. As a regular visitor to the inner Solar System, comet 46P/Wirtanen was once the favored rendezvous target for ESA's comet exploring Rosetta mission.

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      APOD: 2018 November 15 - Comet 46P Wirtanen, Alex Cherney