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. 2023 February 10 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. ZTF meets ATLAS Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Stefan Bemmerl Explanation: Fading as it [5]races across planet Earth's northern skies comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) [6]shares this telescopic frame with comet [7]C/2022 U2 (ATLAS). Captured on the night of February 6 from a garden observatory in Germany's Bavarian Forest, the starry field of view toward the constellation Auriga spans about 2.5 degrees. [8]Discovered by sky survey projects in 2022 (the [9]Zwicky Transient Facility and the [10]Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) these [11]long-period comets are outbound, reaching perihelion just last month. The much fainter comet ATLAS made its closest approach to our fair planet on January 29 at a distance of about 4.6 light-minutes, compared to a mere 2.4 light-minutes for comet ZTF on February 2. This comet ATLAS lacks the well-developed tails of the [12]formerly naked-eye comet ZTF. But both comets sport greenish tinted comas, emission from diatomic carbon molecules fluorescing in sunlight. Continuing its dash across planet Earth's sky, the good-binocular [13]comet ZTF will appear close to bright planet Mars tonight. Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend __________________________________________________________________ [14]< | [15]Archive | [16]Submissions | [17]Index | [18]Search | [19]Calendar | [20]RSS | [21]Education | [22]About APOD | [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/2302/C2022E3ZTFmeetsC2022U2Atlasbeschriftet.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://astrofotografie-steve.de/kontakt/ 5. https://www.facebook.com/groups/564399700347004/posts/5986568748130045/ 6. https://www.astrobin.com/ymb891/0/ 7. https://theskylive.com/c2022u2-info 8. https://people.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/coms22.htm#22U2 9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwicky_Transient_Facility 10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_Terrestrial-impact_Last_Alert_System 11. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/oort-cloud/overview/ 12. https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/understanding-the-tails-of-comet-ztf-c-2022-e3/ 13. https://earthsky.org/tonight/mars-and-comet-2022-e3-ztf-february-10-11-2023/ 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230209.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 18. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 23. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=230210>Discuss|