Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Coma Berenices (Com)  ·  Contains:  Solar system body or event
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Comet C/2020 R4 ATLAS w Nearby Galaxy NGC4414, Dan Bartlett
Comet C/2020 R4 ATLAS w Nearby Galaxy NGC4414
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Comet C/2020 R4 ATLAS w Nearby Galaxy NGC4414

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Comet C/2020 R4 ATLAS w Nearby Galaxy NGC4414, Dan Bartlett
Comet C/2020 R4 ATLAS w Nearby Galaxy NGC4414
Powered byPixInsight

Comet C/2020 R4 ATLAS w Nearby Galaxy NGC4414

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Description

A fairly bright comet has moved into Coma Berenices and is skirting by 10th magnitude Galaxy NGC4414 ( ~55M ly away). The Comet is fairly close to us at this moment, at about 0.7 AU away. Perihelion was on March 1 of this year, never closer than 1 AU from the sun.

I'm not surprised about the color of the comet's atmosphere (Coma) being a typical Carbon rich greenish/blue in color. It's the reddish brown tail color and structure that intrigues me. Bright Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE displayed a similar reddish hue just after perihelion last year. I wonder if sodium atoms are at play again?

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Comet C/2020 R4 ATLAS w Nearby Galaxy NGC4414, Dan Bartlett