Explanation: Buffeted by the solar wind, Comet Lovejoy's crooked ion tail stretches over 3 degrees across this telescopic field of view, recorded on February 20. The starry background includes awesome bluish star Phi Persei below, and pretty planetary nebula M76 just above Lovejoy's long tail. Also known as the Little Dumbbell Nebula, after its brighter cousin M27 the Dumbbell Nebula, M76 is only a Full Moon's width away from the comet's greenish coma. Still shining in northern hemisphere skies, this Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) is outbound from the inner solar system some 10 light-minutes or 190 million kilometers from Earth. But the Little Dumbbell actually lies 3 to 5 thousand light-years away. Now sweeping steadily north toward the constellation Cassiopeia Comet Lovejoy is fading more slowly than predicted and is still a good target for small telescopes.

<<  Fevral'  >> Pn Vt Sr Cht Pt Sb Vs             1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28   1995   1996   1997 1998   1999   2000 2001   2002   2003 2004   2005   2006 2007   2008   2009 2010   2011   2012 2013   2014   2015 2016   2017   2018 2019   2020   2021 2022   2023   2024

Yanvar' Fevral' Mart Aprel' Mai Iyun' Iyul' Avgust Sentyabr' Oktyabr' Noyabr' Dekabr'

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: comet - M 76 - komety - Planetarnaya tumannost' Publikacii so slovami: comet - M 76 - komety - Planetarnaya tumannost'
Sm. takzhe: Vysokii utes na komete Churyumova-Gerasimenko Meteor i kometa Tumannost' Meduza Neobychnye hvosty komety Czyczin'shan'-ATLAS Kometa Czyczin'shan'-ATLAS nad Dolomitovymi Al'pami Kometa Czyczin'shan'-ATLAS nad Kaliforniei Kometa Czyczin'shan'-ATLAS uletaet Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>