Posted on 05/08/2026 12:25:25 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: Which way is Comet R3 PanSTARRS going? Not towards the star at the top of the image, because that is Rigel, which, being far in the background, is unrelated to the comet. Not through the nebula in the image middle, because that is the Witch Head Nebula and it, too, is far in the distance -- but not far from Rigel. Not into northern skies because over the past week Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) has moved into southern skies and is now best visible in Earth's Southern Hemisphere toward the west after sunset. Angularly, Comet R3 PanSTARRS is slowly moving toward the upper right, night by night, and will soon be in the constellation Orion. Spatially, the comet is now headed out of our Solar System but should remain visible to cameras in southern skies for about a week. The featured image was captured last week near Cerro Paranal in Chile.
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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
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Is it just me, or is the witch a wee bit less ugly in that pic?
Here’s your ‘Earthbound Country Bumpkin Stupid Question of the Day’:
How do they tell/measure distances in space? How do they know how far apart things are, as in this picture saying star Rigel and Witch Head Nebula are far BEYOND the comet?
Also, have they taken pictures of our WHOLE Solar System? If not, how do they truly know where everything is? Can Hubble get far enough ‘out there’ to take a picture of our WHOLE solar system? I’ve seen pictures of our Galaxy, and others - but are they for real or just a rendering based on guesses?
I looked here, but these are individual photos that they cropped together to show the outer planets. It’s a pretty cool site, actually.
https://esahubble.org/images/heic2113a/
Wow.
Beautiful.
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