[Image Credit & Copyright:: Martin Pugh]
The only way to describe it is, “Oooooooo, pretty”. Not very scientific, but what the hay...
If I correctly recall, I believe they predict our own Sun will become a Planetary Nebula(after the ‘Red Giant’ phase) when it’s all done, because it isn’t ‘big’ enough to go Super Nova.
Speaking of “not a comet”, the “official” word is that Elinin is “breaking up”...but we all know that the “expanding cloud of fragments” is really the Mother Ship launching the fleet of fighter craft.
In fact, the “Mother Ship” isn't really a single, discrete ship at all, but a composite structure composed of all the attack ships bonded together into a single psuedostructure.
The fleet will be arriving in earth orbit in November, as scheduled to complete their mission of the destruction human polluters.
Al Gore tried to warn us that AGW from Greenhouse Gas Emissions would be our planetary death!
Al Shaprton Warned us the Mother Ship was coming!
Even NASA put out a belated warning that aliens would be attracted by our universe shattering output of Greenhouse Gasses, and come to destroy us before we could multiply!
Did we listen? Noooo, and NOW look what is happening! ELE-NIN is going to get us! DOOMED! It is NOT a comet!
/;-’)
Also not a comet: Jupiter-Bound Space Probe Captures Earth and Moon
Story & photo of earth-moon system from 6M miles out at link
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/news/juno20110830.html
Saw it Saturday night from our dark sky site.
Very pretty, but, nothing like that.
M27 is one of the Messier objects that can be seen with a good pair of binoculars, but, just not very well.
It’s bright enough to be seen in town too.