Posted on 03/17/2016 1:49:50 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Sporting a surprisingly bright, lovely green coma Comet 252P/Linear poses next to the Large Magellanic Cloud in this southern skyscape. The stack of telephoto exposures was captured on March 16 from Penwortham, South Australia. Recognized as a Jupiter family periodic comet, 252P/Linear will come close to our fair planet on March 21, passing a mere 5.3 million kilometers away. That's about 14 times the Earth-Moon distance. In fact, it is one of two comets that will make remarkably close approaches in the next few days as a much fainter Comet Pan-STARRS (P/2016 BA14) comes within 3.5 million kilometers (9 times the Earth-Moon distance) on March 22. The two have extremely similar orbits, suggesting they may have originally been part of the same comet. Sweeping quickly across the sky because of their proximity to Earth, both comets will soon move into northern skies.
[Credit and Copyright: Justin Tilbrook (Astronomical Society of South Australia)]
http://129.164.179.22/apod/image/1603/LMC252P_160316Tilbrook.jpg
http://129.164.179.22/apod/image/1603/LMC252P_160316Tilbrook1024.jpg
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=3410276%2C0
NASA Says A Fireball Crashed Into The Atlantic, But No One Noticed
http://www.msn.com/en-us/video/wonder/nasa-says-a-fireball-crashed-into-the-atlantic-but-no-one-noticed/vi-BBpREJb
I saw that. Freaked me out for a few days.
Awesome!
Ghost of St. Patrick?
The coma fits... ;’)
Count your lucky, uh, stars that it hit over the ocean. :’)
Recognized as a Jupiter family periodic comet, 252P/Linear will come close to our fair planet on March 21, passing a mere 5.3 million kilometers away.Dunno how the show will be, but I saw comet and Jupiter and close pass, and had to ping. :')
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Was hoping to catch a peak of this, but, as it will be an early morning object, I have a feeling I’ll sleep through it.
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/p2016-ba14-closest-comet-in-almost-250-years03162016/
I love pics of the galaxies! Thanks, SC!
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