Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2020 March 21
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                     Comet ATLAS and the Mighty Galaxies
       Image Credit & [3]Copyright: Rolando Ligustri ([4]CARA Project,
                                  [5]CAST)

   Explanation: [6]Comet ATLAS C/2019 Y4 was discovered by the NASA funded
   [7]Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, the last comet
   discovery reported in 2019. Now growing brighter in northern night
   skies, the comet's pretty greenish coma is at the upper left of [8]this
   telescopic skyview captured from a remotely operated observatory in New
   Mexico on March 18. At lower right are [9]M81 and M82, well-known as
   large, gravitationally interacting galaxies. Seen through faint dust
   clouds above the Milky Way, the galaxy pair lies about 12 million
   light-years distant, toward the constellation Ursa Major. In bound
   Comet ATLAS is about 9 light-minutes from Earth, still beyond the orbit
   of Mars. The comet's elongated orbit is similar to orbit of the
   [10]Great Comet of 1844 though, a trajectory that will return this
   comet to the inner Solar System in about 6,000 years. [11]Comet ATLAS
   will reach a perihelion or closest approach to the Sun on May 31 inside
   the orbit of Mercury and may become a naked-eye comet [12]in the coming
   days.

                        Tomorrow's picture: moon down
     __________________________________________________________________

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    Authors & editors: [24]Robert Nemiroff ([25]MTU) & [26]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([27]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [28]Specific rights apply.
              [29]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [30]ASD at [31]NASA / [32]GSFC
                           & [33]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2003/C2019Y4_200318_FB.jpg
   3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
   4. http://cara.uai.it/
   5. http://www.castfvg.it/
   6. https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K20/K20AB2.html
   7. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014htu..conf...65D/abstract
   8. https://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=160047
   9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160203.html
  10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_near-parabolic_comets
  11. http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comet/2019Y4
  12. https://www.space.com/comet-atlas-may-be-brightenting.html
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200320.html
  14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  17. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  22. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200321
  23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200322.html
  24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  27. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  29. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  30. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  31. https://www.nasa.gov/
  32. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  33. http://www.mtu.edu/