                 APOD: 2018 January 12 - Blue Comet PanSTARRS

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

                                2018 January 12
                                      [2]
                            Blue Comet PanSTARRS
     Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Damian Peach [4] , Jose J. Chambo [5]

Explanation: Discovered with the PanSTARRS telescope on September 7, 2016,
this Comet PanSTARRS, C/2016 R2 [6] , is presently about 24 light minutes (3
AU) from the Sun, sweeping through [7]  planet Earth's skies [8] across the
background of stars in the constellation Taurus. An inbound visitor from our
Solar System's distant Oort Cloud [9] , its beautiful and complex ion tail
[10]  is a remarkable shade of blue. Still relatively far from the Sun, the
comet's already well-developed ion tail is very impressive. Emission from [11]
unusually abundant ionized carbon monoxide (CO+) atoms fluorescing in the
increasing sunlight is largely responsible for the pretty blue tint. This
color image [12] of the blue comet is a combination of data taken from two
different telescopes during the night of January 7. Located at the apex of the
V-shaped Hyades star cluster [13]  in Taurus, bright star Gamma Tauri is
responsible for the glow at the bottom left corner of the frame.

                    Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend [14]

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [26] (MTU [27] ) & Jerry Bonnell [28]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1801/c2016_r2_2018_01_07dpjjc.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] http://www.damianpeach.com/
  [5] http://cometografia.es/acerca-de/contactar/
  [6] http://aerith.net/comet/catalog/2016R2/2016R2.html
  [7] http://spaceweathergallery.com/ indiv_upload.php?upload_id=141786
  [8] http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/
bright-comet-prospects-for-2018/
  [9] https://solarsystem.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/oort
  [10] ap150121.html
  [11] https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.01199
  [12] http://cometografia.es/2016r2-panstarrs-20180107b/
  [13] ap121224.html
  [14] ap180113.html
  [15] ap180111.html
  [16] archivepix.html
  [17] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [18] lib/aptree.html
  [19] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [20] calendar/allyears.html
  [21] /apod.rss
  [22] lib/edlinks.html
  [23] lib/about_apod.html
  [24] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=180112
  [25] ap180113.html
  [26] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [27] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [28] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [29] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [30] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
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