Subj : Daily APOD Report
To   : All
From : Alan Ianson
Date : Tue Mar 26 2024 00:04:36

                        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.

                                2024 March 26
    A large comet is shown with its head near the right and a light blue
   flowing ion tail flowing across into the rest of the image. Please see
               the explanation for more detailed information.

                         Comet Pons-Brooks' Ion Tail
                    Image Credit & License: James Peirce

   Explanation: Comet Pons-Brooks has quite a tail to tell. First
   discovered in 1385, this erupting dirty snowball loops back into our
   inner Solar System every 71 years and, this time, is starting to put on
   a show for deep camera exposures. In the featured picture, the light
   blue stream is the ion tail which consists of charged molecules pushed
   away from the comet's nucleus by the solar wind. The ion tail, shaped
   by the Sun's wind and the comet's core's rotation, always points away
   from the Sun. Comet 12P/PonsCÇôBrooks is now visible with binoculars in
   the early evening sky toward the northwest, moving perceptibly from
   night to night. The frequently flaring comet is expected to continue to
   brighten, on the average, and may even become visible with the unaided
   eye -- during the day -- to those in the path of totality of the coming
   solar eclipse on April 8.

                  Tomorrow's picture: thousands of galaxies
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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