by APOD Robot » Thu Jan 18, 2018 5:09 am
Blue Comet in the Hyades
Explanation: Stars of the Hyades cluster are scattered through this mosaic spanning over 5 degrees on the sky toward the constellation Taurus. Presently cruising through the Solar System, the
remarkably blue comet C/2016 R2 PanSTARRS is placed in the wide field of view using image data from January 12. With the apex of the V-shape in the Hyades cluster positioned near the top center,
bright Aldebaran, alpha star of Taurus, anchors the frame at the lower right. A cool red giant, Aldebaran is seen in orange hues in the colorful starfield. While the stars of the Hyades are gathered 151 light-years away, Aldebaran lies only 65 light-years distant and so is separate from the cluster stars.
On January 12, C/2016 R2 was over 17 light-minutes from planet Earth and nearly 24 light-minutes from the Sun. Its blue tinted tail largely due to
CO+ gas fluorescing in sunlight, the
head or coma of the comet appears with a slightly greenish hue, likely emission from diatomic carbon.
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[url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180118.html][img]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_180118.jpg[/img] [size=150]Blue Comet in the Hyades[/size][/url]
[b] Explanation: [/b] [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121224.html]Stars of the Hyades[/url] cluster are scattered through this mosaic spanning over 5 degrees on the sky toward the constellation Taurus. Presently cruising through the Solar System, the [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180112.html]remarkably blue comet[/url] C/2016 R2 PanSTARRS is placed in the wide field of view using image data from January 12. With the apex of the V-shape in the Hyades cluster positioned near the top center, [url=http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/aldebaran.html]bright Aldebaran[/url], alpha star of Taurus, anchors the frame at the lower right. A cool red giant, Aldebaran is seen in orange hues in the colorful starfield. While the stars of the Hyades are gathered 151 light-years away, Aldebaran lies only 65 light-years distant and so is separate from the cluster stars. [url=https://theskylive.com/planetarium?obj=c2016r2&date=2018-01-12&h=00&m=00#ra|4.27708847383563|dec|17.798274448522356|fov|16]On January 12[/url], C/2016 R2 was over 17 light-minutes from planet Earth and nearly 24 light-minutes from the Sun. Its blue tinted tail largely due to [url=https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.01199]CO+ gas[/url] fluorescing in sunlight, the [url=https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/comets/basic]head or coma[/url] of the comet appears with a slightly greenish hue, likely emission from diatomic carbon.
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