Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  Barnard's Merope Nebula  ·  IC 341  ·  IC 349  ·  IC 353  ·  IC 354  ·  IC 360  ·  Maia Nebula  ·  Merope Nebula  ·  NGC 1432  ·  NGC 1435  ·  Part of the constellation Taurus (Tau)  ·  The star Aldebaran (αTau)  ·  The star Atlas (27Tau)  ·  The star Electra (17Tau)  ·  The star γTau  ·  The star δ1Tau  ·  The star εTau  ·  The star ηTau  ·  The star θ1Tau  ·  The star θ2Tau  ·  The star λTau
COMET 46P/WIRTANEN, M-45 "PLEYADES", Caldwell 41 "HYADES" AND THE TAURUS DARK CLOUDS (on the left), Roger R. Sanchez Giammattei
COMET 46P/WIRTANEN, M-45 "PLEYADES", Caldwell 41 "HYADES" AND THE TAURUS DARK CLOUDS (on the left), Roger R. Sanchez Giammattei

COMET 46P/WIRTANEN, M-45 "PLEYADES", Caldwell 41 "HYADES" AND THE TAURUS DARK CLOUDS (on the left)

COMET 46P/WIRTANEN, M-45 "PLEYADES", Caldwell 41 "HYADES" AND THE TAURUS DARK CLOUDS (on the left), Roger R. Sanchez Giammattei
COMET 46P/WIRTANEN, M-45 "PLEYADES", Caldwell 41 "HYADES" AND THE TAURUS DARK CLOUDS (on the left), Roger R. Sanchez Giammattei

COMET 46P/WIRTANEN, M-45 "PLEYADES", Caldwell 41 "HYADES" AND THE TAURUS DARK CLOUDS (on the left)

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Description

The 46P / Wirtanen periodic comet was discovered on January 17, 1948 by Carl A. Wirtanen from the Lick Observatory (USA). With a period of 5.44 years, in this thirteenth appearance has the perihelion on December 12, 2018 at 1.06 U.A. of the Sun, being its maximum approach to Earth on the 17th of the same month at 0.078 U.A. of our planet.

The Pleiades or The Seven Sisters is an open star cluster that contains hot, middle-aged B-type spectral stars, located in the constellation Taurus. It is among one of the closest star clusters to Earth, and is the best visible cluster with the naked eye in the night sky.

The Hyades (also known as Melotte 25 or Collinder 50) is the closest open cluster to the solar system and one of the best studied of all existing star clusters. The Hipparcos satellite, the Hubble space telescope and the appropriate infrared color-magnitude diagram have been used to establish a distance of ~ 152 light-years (47 parsecs) to the center of the cluster. The distances established by these three independent methods agree that the Hyades is an important step in the cosmic distance scale. The group is made up of a more or less spherical group of hundreds of stars that share the same age, place of origin, chemical composition and movement through space. From the perspective of observers on Earth, the cluster of the Hyades appears in the constellation Taurus, where its brightest stars form a "V" along with the even brighter red giant Aldebaran. However, Aldebaran is not related to the Hyades, since it is much closer to Earth (hence its apparent brightness) and merely happens to be in the same line of sight.

The Taurus Dark Cloud, in the constellation of Taurus (The Bull), lies about 450 light-years from Earth. This image shows two parts of a long, filamentary structure in this cloud, which are known as Barnard 211 and Barnard 213. Their names come from Edward Emerson Barnard’s photographic atlas of the “dark markings of the sky”, compiled in the early 20th century. In visible light, these regions appear as dark lanes, lacking in stars. Barnard correctly argued that this appearance was due to “obscuring matter in space”.

We know today that these dark markings are actually clouds of interstellar gas and dust grains. The dust grains — tiny particles similar to very fine soot and sand — absorb visible light, blocking our view of the rich star field behind the clouds. The Taurus Molecular Cloud is particularly dark at visible wavelengths, as it lacks the massive stars that illuminate the nebulae in other star-formation regions such as Orion. The dust grains themselves also emit a faint heat glow but, as they are extremely cold at around -260 degrees Celsius, their light can only be seen at wavelengths much longer than visible light, around one millimetre.

These clouds of gas and dust are not merely an obstacle for astronomers wishing to observe the stars behind them. In fact, they are themselves the birthplaces of new stars. When the clouds collapse under their own gravity, they fragment into clumps. Within these clumps, dense cores may form, in which the hydrogen gas becomes dense and hot enough to start fusion reactions: a new star is born. The birth of the star is therefore surrounded by a cocoon of dense dust, blocking observations at visible wavelengths. This is why observations at longer wavelengths, such as the millimetre range, are essential for understanding the early stages of star formation.

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  • COMET 46P/WIRTANEN, M-45 "PLEYADES", Caldwell 41 "HYADES" AND THE TAURUS DARK CLOUDS (on the left), Roger R. Sanchez Giammattei
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    COMET 46P/WIRTANEN, M-45 "PLEYADES", Caldwell 41 "HYADES" AND THE TAURUS DARK CLOUDS (on the left), Roger R. Sanchez Giammattei
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  • COMET 46P/WIRTANEN, M-45 "PLEYADES", Caldwell 41 "HYADES" AND THE TAURUS DARK CLOUDS (on the left), Roger R. Sanchez Giammattei
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Description: Place the mouse pointer over the image, to see the Taurus Black Cloud area.

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COMET 46P/WIRTANEN, M-45 "PLEYADES", Caldwell 41 "HYADES" AND THE TAURUS DARK CLOUDS (on the left), Roger R. Sanchez Giammattei

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