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. 2022 July 21 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Messier 10 and Comet Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]German Penelas Perez Explanation: Imaged on July 15 2022, [5]comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) had a [6]Messier moment, sharing this wide telescopic field of view with globular star cluster Messier 10. Of course M10 was cataloged by 18th century comet hunter Charles Messier as the 10th object on his list of things that were definitely not comets. [7]While M10 is about 14 thousand light-years distant, this comet PanSTARRS was about 15 light-seconds from our fair planet following its its July 14 closest approach. [8]Its greenish coma and dust tail entertaining 21st century comet watchers, C/2017 K2 is expected to remain a fine telescopic comet in [9]northern summer skies. On a maiden voyage from our Solar System's remote [10]Oort Cloud this comet PanSTARRS was discovered in May 2017 when it was beyond the orbit of Saturn. At the time that made it the most [11]distant active inbound comet known. Its closest approach the Sun will be within 1.8 [12]astronomical units on December 19, beyond the orbital distance of Mars. Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space __________________________________________________________________ [13]< | [14]Archive | [15]Submissions | [16]Index | [17]Search | [18]Calendar | [19]RSS | [20]Education | [21]About APOD | [22]Discuss | [23]> __________________________________________________________________ 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]NASA Science Activation & [34]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2207/C2017k2cumuloM10v4_2048.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. mailto: grpe perez [at] gmail 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2017_K2_(PanSTARRS) 6. https://www.nasa.gov/content/explore-the-night-sky-hubble-s-messier-catalog-bio 7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010630.html 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220630.html 9. https://in-the-sky.org/data/object.php?id=CK17K020 10. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/oort-cloud/overview/ 11. https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2017/news-2017-40.html 12. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/1230/cosmic-distances/ 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220720.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=220721 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220722.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. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 34. http://www.mtu.edu/