by Ann » Thu Apr 04, 2024 6:50 am
Yes, Pons-Brooks is a nice comet!
I still find it very interesting that Pons-Brooks is so "gassy", even though it has (or so I think) visited the vicinity of the Sun several times. Getting close to the blisteringly hot Sun and its merciless solar wind, and doing it on several occasions to boot, should be enough to make any comet
deflate!
I find it interesting, too, that Pons-Brooks has such a faint, vaguely misty-looking dust tail. If you should accidentally blunder into a British whodunnit story and find yourself inside a mist like that, watch out or you'll be the
victim whose murder the detective has to solve!
My impression is that many (or most?) comets have dust tails that are brighter than their ion tails:
And now we just wait for the next Pons-Brooks APOD - Comet Pons-Brooks in daytime skies on April 8, 2024! That is, if anyone can tear his or her eyes off the corona of the eclipsed Sun and search for Pons-Brooks in the opposite part of the sky!
Ann
Yes, Pons-Brooks is a nice comet! :D
[float=left][img3="Comet Pons-Brooks at Night.
Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett"]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2404/12P_Pons_Brooks_2024_03_30_JuneLake_DEBartlett1024.jpg[/img3][/float][float=right][attachment=0]APOD 4 April 2024 annotated.png[/attachment][/float]
[clear][/clear]
I still find it very interesting that Pons-Brooks is so "gassy", even though it has (or so I think) visited the vicinity of the Sun several times. Getting close to the blisteringly hot Sun and its merciless solar wind, and doing it on several occasions to boot, should be enough to make any comet [url=https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/IjjDIxO20MCOHpsoYcm2yW46XZI=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/heartbroken-man-at-the-park-looking-very-sad-482464312-57fe4fd73df78c690f84300b.jpg]deflate[/url]!
I find it interesting, too, that Pons-Brooks has such a faint, vaguely misty-looking dust tail. If you should accidentally blunder into a British whodunnit story and find yourself inside a mist like that, watch out or you'll be the [url=https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2J86RB0/dead-body-outline-as-a-crime-scene-concept-or-murder-mystery-symbol-and-work-accident-as-a-chalk-drawing-on-pavement-of-a-deceased-person-2J86RB0.jpg]victim[/url] whose murder the detective has to solve! :shock:
My impression is that many (or most?) comets have dust tails that are brighter than their ion tails:
[img3="Comet Hale-Bopp and open cluster M34. Credit: Kopernik Astro Society."]https://www.kopernik.org/images/archive/hb0405-2.jpg[/img3]
And now we just wait for the next Pons-Brooks APOD - Comet Pons-Brooks in daytime skies on April 8, 2024! That is, if anyone can tear his or her eyes off the corona of the eclipsed Sun and search for Pons-Brooks in the opposite part of the sky!
Ann