Posted on 10/15/2024 1:05:04 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: How bright and strange will the tails of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS become? The comet has brightened dramatically over the few weeks as it passed its closest to the Sun and, just three days ago, passed its closest to the Earth. C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) became of the brightest comets of the past century over the past few days, but was unfortunately hard to see because it was so nearly superposed on the Sun. As the comet appears to move away from the Sun, it is becoming a remarkable sight -- but may soon begin to fade. The featured animated video shows how the comet's tails have developed, as viewed from Earth, and gives one prediction about how they might further develop. As shown in the video, heavier parts of the dust tail that trails the comet have begun to appear to point in nearly the opposite direction from lighter parts of the dust tail as well as the comet's ion tail, the blue tail that is pushed directly out from the Sun by the solar wind.
(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...
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Today's image is a video at the source link.
I’ve been able to get a look at this comet the last couple evenings. Yesterday evening was quite rewarding: Conditions were briefly good enough that despite the moon being bright (blocked by trees to the east of my position, however), by naked eye I could see the comet and tail about as lengthy as my fist at arm’s length. That’s my personal tops for any comet!
Tonight I could just barely make the comet out at all: We had more dust in the air due to it being very breezy until after 5 pm, and we are quite dry (again).
Hopefully tomorrow night will be good for observation (calm day and high pressure to give clear skies.)
At some point soon though, the comet will fade as its distance from the sun increases.
🙂
Good catch! I haven’t been able to get to an area open enough to see close enough to the horizon- too many trees.
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