by APOD Robot » Tue Mar 26, 2024 4:05 am
Comet Pons-Brooks' Ion Tail
Explanation: Comet Pons-Brooks has quite a tail to tell.
First discovered in
1385, this erupting
dirty snowball loops back into our inner
Solar System every 71 years and, this time, is starting to
put on a show for deep camera exposures. In the
featured picture, the light blue stream is the
ion tail which consists of charged
molecules pushed away from the comet's nucleus by the solar wind. The ion tail, shaped by the
Sun's wind and the
comet's core's rotation, always points away from the Sun.
Comet 12P/PonsâBrooks is now
visible with binoculars in the early evening sky toward the northwest, moving perceptibly from night to night. The frequently flaring comet is expected to continue to brighten, on the average, and
may even become visible with the unaided eye --
during the day -- to those in the
path of totality of the coming
solar eclipse on April 8.
[url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240326.html] [img]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_240326.jpg[/img] [size=150]Comet Pons-Brooks' Ion Tail[/size][/url]
[b] Explanation: [/b] Comet Pons-Brooks has quite a tail to tell. [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12P/Pons%E2%80%93Brooks#Observational_history]First discovered[/url] in [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1385]1385[/url], this erupting [url=https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/facts/]dirty snowball[/url] loops back into our inner [url=https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/facts/]Solar System[/url] every 71 years and, this time, is starting to [url=https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YXmt_QrqXUE/maxresdefault.jpg]put on a show[/url] for deep camera exposures. In the [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamespeirce/53600572168/in/pool-apods/]featured picture[/url], the light blue stream is the [url=http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/Academics/Astr221/SolarSys/Comets/tails.html]ion tail[/url] which consists of charged [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecule]molecule[/url]s pushed away from the comet's nucleus by the solar wind. The ion tail, shaped by the [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap000318.html]Sun's wind[/url] and the [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240318.html]comet's core's rotation[/url], always points away from the Sun. [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240216.html]Comet 12P/PonsâBrooks[/url] is now [url=https://theskylive.com/where-is-12p]visible[/url] with binoculars in the early evening sky toward the northwest, moving perceptibly from night to night. The frequently flaring comet is expected to continue to brighten, on the average, and [url=https://theskylive.com/12p-info]may even become visible[/url] with the unaided eye -- [i] during the day [/i] -- to those in the [url=https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5219/]path of totality[/url] of the coming [url=https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/where-when/]solar eclipse on April 8[/url].
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