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.

                                2020 March 21

                     Comet ATLAS and the Mighty Galaxies
       Image Credit & Copyright: Rolando Ligustri (CARA Project, CAST)

   Explanation: Comet ATLAS C/2019 Y4 was discovered by the NASA funded
   Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, the last comet discovery
   reported in 2019. Now growing brighter in northern night skies, the
   comet's pretty greenish coma is at the upper left of this telescopic
   skyview captured from a remotely operated observatory in New Mexico on
   March 18. At lower right are M81 and M82, well-known as large,
   gravitationally interacting galaxies. Seen through faint dust clouds
   above the Milky Way, the galaxy pair lies about 12 million light-years
   distant, toward the constellation Ursa Major. In bound Comet ATLAS is
   about 9 light-minutes from Earth, still beyond the orbit of Mars. The
   comet's elongated orbit is similar to orbit of the Great Comet of 1844
   though, a trajectory that will return this comet to the inner Solar
   System in about 6,000 years. Comet ATLAS will reach a perihelion or
   closest approach to the Sun on May 31 inside the orbit of Mercury and
   may become a naked-eye comet in the coming days.

                        Tomorrow's picture: moon down
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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