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
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    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</a>|<ahref=
  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/