Astronomy Picture of the Day 1-30-03

NASA ^ | 1-30-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2003 January 30

Comet Kudo-Fujikawa: Days in the Sun
Credit: SOHO - LASCO Consortium, ESA, NASA

Explanation: Cruising through the inner Solar System, new Comet Kudo-Fujikawa reached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, yesterday, January 29. Passing within 28.4 million kilometers of the Sun, this comet came much closer than innermost planet Mercury basking only 57.9 million kilometers from our parent star. So close to the Sun, comet Kudo-Fujikawa was extremely bright but impossible for earthbound observers to see against the solar glare. Still, the space-based SOHO observatory captured these views of the comet as it neared perihelion by using a coronograph's occulting disk to block the overwhelming sunlight. In the series of images, the size and location of the blocked-out Sun is indicated by white circles, while arrows point to the traveling comet's bright coma and developing tail. Though fading on its outbound journey, Kudo-Fujikawa should soon be visible to southern hemisphere comet-watchers in February's evening skies.

[petuniasevan]

Kudo-Fujikawa was a disappointment; it did not brighten nearly as much as predicted. By the time it reached mag. 5.5, it was so low in the eastern sky that it was nearly impossible for me to pick out before dawn washed it out.

I'm hoping that Comet C/2002 V1 NEAT (found in the course of the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking program) will be a much brighter comet.

Here it is as of 1-28-03:

This comet is presently around mag. 5.8 - 6.1 according to observers worldwide.

Finder chart for both comets (Kudo is "X5", NEAT is "V1")

[petuniasevan]

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Great pic! Does this comet qualify as a sun-grazer?

[BossyRoofer]

Great work! APOD the place to if you want to the truth!

[xJones]

Lately our comets have been rather disappointing. Great Comets. But in Oct. 1965, the "Sungrazing comet Ikeya-Seki split into two or possibly three pieces near perihelion. Toward the end of October, the impressive tail reached lengths in excess of 45 degrees". Let's all hope that Comet C/2002 V1 NEAT will be a good one.

[RightWhale]

Does this comet qualify as a sun-grazer?

If you like. It looks like it came within 3 or 4 solar radii, but the view might be oblique so the closest approach might have been much more than 3 or 4 radii. All the same, the comet took some abuse from solar heat.

[Mr. K]

why isnt the tail pointing away from the sun?

[RightWhale]

why isnt the tail pointing away from the sun?

It does, but only generally away from the sun. It is made of at least some particulate matter that would follow a composite vector of the comet's motion and the pressure from the sun's radiation. The tail looks so short in the image that we are probably looking at a severely foreshortened angle out of the plane of the orbit.