Astronomy Picture of the Day

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                                2020 April 16

                            Comet ATLAS Breaks Up
   Image Credit & Copyright: Milen Minev (Bulgarian Inst. of Astronomy and
         NAO Rozhen), Velimir Popov, Emil Ivanov (Irida Observatory)

   Explanation: Cruising through the inner solar system, Comet ATLAS
   C2019/Y4 has apparently fragmented. Multiple separate condensations
   within its diffuse coma are visible in this telescopic close-up from
   April 12, composed of frames tracking the comet's motion against
   trailing background stars. Discovered at the end of December 2019, this
   comet ATLAS showed a remarkably rapid increase in brightness in late
   March. Northern hemisphere comet watchers held out hope that it would
   become a bright nake-eye comet as it came closer to Earth in late April
   and May. But fragmenting ATLAS is slowly fading in northern skies. The
   breakup of comets is not uncommon though. This comet ATLAS is in an
   orbit similar to the Great Comet of 1844 (C/1844 Y1) and both may be
   fragments of a single larger comet.

                      Tomorrow's picture: The Starmill
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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