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                        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 October 19

                      Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Flys Away
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Xingyang Cai

   Explanation: These six panels follow daily apparitions of comet C/2023
   A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS as it moved away from our fair planet during the
   past week. The images were taken with the same camera and lens at the
   indicated dates and locations from California, planet Earth. At far
   right on October 12 the visitor from the distant Oort cloud was near
   its closest approach, some 70 million kilometers (about 4
   light-minutes) away. Its bright coma and long dust tail were close on
   the sky to the setting Sun but still easy to spot against a bright
   western horizon. Over the following days, the outbound comet steadily
   climbs above the ecliptic and north into the darker western evening
   sky, but begins to fade from view. Crossing the Earth's orbital plane
   around October 14, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS exhibits a noticeable antitail
   extended toward the western horizon. Higher in the evening sky at
   sunset by October 17 (far left) the comet has faded and reached a
   distance of around 77 million kilometers from planet Earth. Hopefully
   you enjoyed some of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS's bid to become the best comet of
   2024. This comet's initial orbital period estimates were a mere 80,000
   years, but in fact it may never return to the inner Solar System.

              Growing Gallery: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in 2024
                  Tomorrow's picture: a simulated universe
     __________________________________________________________________

       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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