by APOD Robot » Mon May 06, 2013 4:12 am
Tails of Comet Lemmon
Explanation: What caused the interestingly intricate tails that Comet Lemmon displayed earlier this year? First of all, just about every comet that nears the Sun displays two tails: a
dust tail and an
ion tail.
Comet Lemmon's dust tail, visible above and around the comet nucleus in off-white, is produced by sun-light reflecting
dust shed by the
comet's heated nucleus. Flowing and more sculptured, however, is
C/2012 F6 (Lemmon)'s blue
ion tail, created by the
solar wind pushing ions expelled by the nucleus away from the Sun. Also of note is the coma seen surrounding
Comet Lemmon's nucleus,
tinted green by atomic carbon gas fluorescing in sunlight. The
above image was taken from the dark skies of
Namibia in mid-April. Comet Lemmon is fading as it now
heads back to the outer Solar System.
[/b]
[url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130506.html][img]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_130506.jpg[/img] [size=150]Tails of Comet Lemmon[/size][/url]
[b] Explanation: [/b] What caused the interestingly intricate tails that Comet Lemmon displayed earlier this year? First of all, just about every comet that nears the Sun displays two tails: a [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Comet_Parts.jpg]dust tail[/url] and an [url=http://www2.ess.ucla.edu/~jewitt/tail.html]ion tail[/url]. [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Lemmon]Comet Lemmon[/url]'s dust tail, visible above and around the comet nucleus in off-white, is produced by sun-light reflecting [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010813.html]dust[/url] shed by the [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101123.html]comet's heated nucleus[/url]. Flowing and more sculptured, however, is [url=http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=30841]C/2012 F6 (Lemmon)[/url]'s blue [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion]ion[/url] tail, created by the [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap000318.html]solar wind[/url] pushing ions expelled by the nucleus away from the Sun. Also of note is the coma seen surrounding [url=http://www.universetoday.com/101137/comet-lemmon-a-preview-guide-for-april/]Comet Lemmon[/url]'s nucleus, [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130207.html]tinted green[/url] by atomic carbon gas fluorescing in sunlight. The [url=http://www.astrostudio.at/2_Bright%20Comets.php?img=images/2_Bright%20Comets/146_Lemmoncolor_21_04.jpg]above image[/url] was taken from the dark skies of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namibia]Namibia[/url] in mid-April. Comet Lemmon is fading as it now [url=http://mpcapp1.cfa.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/returnprepeph.cgi?d=c&o=CK12F060]heads back[/url] to the outer Solar System.
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