               APOD: 2018 January 18 - Blue Comet in the Hyades

                         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 18
                                      [2]
                          Blue Comet in the Hyades
  Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Rogelio Bernal Andreo [4]  (Deep Sky Colors)

Explanation: Stars of the Hyades [5] 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 [6] 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 [7] , 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 [8] , 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 [9] fluorescing in sunlight, the head or coma [10] of
the comet appears with a slightly greenish hue, likely emission from diatomic
carbon.

                   Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space [11]

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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1801/RBA_DS_CometHyades.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] https://www.facebook.com/DeepSkyColors
  [5] ap121224.html
  [6] ap180112.html
  [7] http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/aldebaran.html
  [8] https://theskylive.com/planetarium?obj=c2016r2&date=2018-01-12
&h=00&m=00#ra|4.27708847383563|dec|17.798274448522356|fov|16
  [9] https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.01199
  [10] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/comets/basic
  [11] ap180119.html
  [12] ap180117.html
  [13] archivepix.html
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  [23] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
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