APOD: A Charioteer's Comet (2019 Mar 01)

Comments and questions about the APOD on the main view screen.
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APOD: A Charioteer's Comet (2019 Mar 01)

Post by APOD Robot » Fri Mar 01, 2019 5:11 am

Image A Charioteer's Comet

Explanation: Still racing across planet Earth's night skies, Comet Iwamoto (C/2018 Y1) shares this pretty telescopic field of view with stars and nebulae of northern constellation Auriga, the Charioteer. Captured on February 27, Iwamoto's greenish coma and faint tail appear between a complex of reddish emission nebulae and open star cluster M36 (bottom right). The reddish emission is light from hydrogen gas ionized by ultraviolet radiation from hot stars near the region's giant molecular cloud some 6,000 light-years distant. The greenish glow from the comet, less than 5 light-minutes away, is predominantly emission from diatomic carbon molecules fluorescing in sunlight. M36, one of Auriga's more familiar star clusters, is also a background object far beyond the Solar System, about 4,000 light-years away. Comet Iwamoto passed closest to Earth on February 12 and is outward bound in a highly elliptical orbit that will carry it beyond the Kuiper belt. With an estimated orbital period of 1,317 years it should return to the inner Solar System in 3390 AD.

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Ann
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Re: APOD: A Charioteer's Comet (2019 Mar 01)

Post by Ann » Fri Mar 01, 2019 5:53 am

This is a fine picture of Comet Iwamoto located in an interesting and photogenic part of the sky.


Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner passing through the Sharpless 2-235 region.
Photo: Bob Lockwood.
The reddest part of nebulosity in today's APOD to the upper left of the comet is Sharpless 2-235. I can't resist showing you another picture of another comet passing through the same part of the sky.

Yellow Pollux at left and blue Castor at right.
Photo: Rogelio Bernal Andreo.


















Interestingly, I think that Rolando Ligustri has used a lot of green to capture the picture of the green comet and its surroundings in today's APOD. The two greenish stars to the lower left of cluster M36 in the APOD would be HD 37617 and HD 38113 (in the lower left corner). HD 37617 and HD 38113 belong to spectral classes K0 and G5. Both are have color indexes similar to well-known K0 star Pollux, Alpha Gemini. They are orange or at least yellow stars but look green in the APOD.

I think that the green color in the APOD has been enhanced to bring out the comet. Come to think of it, the picture looks a bit like an OIII + Hα image.

Ann
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251billyg
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Re: APOD: A Charioteer's Comet (2019 Mar 01)

Post by 251billyg » Fri Mar 01, 2019 8:01 am

The math doesn't add up for a 3390 return.I get 3336 when I add 2019 to 1317. :oops:

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Re: APOD: A Charioteer's Comet (2019 Mar 01)

Post by neufer » Fri Mar 01, 2019 12:36 pm

251billyg wrote: Fri Mar 01, 2019 8:01 am
The math doesn't add up for a 3390 return.I get 3336 when I add 2019 to 1317. :oops:
1317 (year period) is a typo....should be 1371: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190209.html
Art Neuendorffer

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orin stepanek
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Re: APOD: A Charioteer's Comet (2019 Mar 01)

Post by orin stepanek » Fri Mar 01, 2019 12:39 pm

Beautiful! Makes a nice wallpaper if you flip it 90 degrees and edit with paint! 8-)
Orin

Smile today; tomorrow's another day!

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MarkBour
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Re: APOD: A Charioteer's Comet (2019 Mar 01)

Post by MarkBour » Fri Mar 01, 2019 5:53 pm

I'm all for NASA's plan to hitch a ride on one of these babies!
(Well, at least there is a proposal ... https://www.nasa.gov/content/comet-hitc ... d-low-cost).
Mark Goldfain

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neufer
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Re: APOD: A Charioteer's Comet (2019 Mar 01)

Post by neufer » Fri Mar 01, 2019 8:11 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.
MarkBour wrote: Fri Mar 01, 2019 5:53 pm
I'm all for NASA's plan to hitch a ride on one of these babies!

(Well, at least there is a proposal ...

https://www.nasa.gov/content/comet-hitc ... d-low-cost).
Art Neuendorffer