                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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 March 24

                             Outbound Comet ZTF
                 Image Credit & Copyright: Rolando Ligustri

   Explanation: Former darling of the northern sky Comet C/2022E3 (ZTF)
   has faded. During its closest approach to our fair planet in early
   February Comet ZTF was a mere 2.3 light-minutes distant. Then known as
   the green comet, this visitor from the remote Oort Cloud is now nearly
   13.3 light-minutes away. In this deep image, composed of exposures
   captured on March 21, the comet still sports a broad, whitish dust tail
   and greenish tinted coma though. Not far on the sky from Orion's bright
   star Rigel, Comet ZTF shares the field of view with faint, dusty
   nebulae and distant background galaxies. The telephoto frame is crowded
   with Milky Way stars toward the constellation Eridanus. The influence
   of Jupiter's gravity on the comet's orbit as ZTF headed for the inner
   solar system, may have set the comet on an outbound journey, never to
   return.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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