Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  Solar system body or event
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Comet 46P/Wirtanen, Rick Veregin
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Comet 46P/Wirtanen

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Comet 46P/Wirtanen, Rick Veregin
Powered byPixInsight

Comet 46P/Wirtanen

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Description

Comet 46P was discover by Wirtanen in 1948. While it cycles between Earth's orbit and Jupiter's, returning every 5.4 years, this is the closet approach in centuries--past or future. My photo here is 1 day after the closest approach to Earth, which was 30 Lunar distances on December 16th. The comet core itself is only 1.2 km across. The gaseous coma, which is larger than Jupiter, glows green-blue due to fluorescence from carbon atoms excited by sunlight, specifically CN and diatomic carbon, C2 (which has two carbon atoms bonded together). Any ion tail from the comet trails away from the sun, so at this point is behind the comet and not visible.

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Comet 46P/Wirtanen, Rick Veregin