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.
Image & info via APOD: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit
& Copyright: Milen
Minev (Bulgarian Inst. of Astronomy and NAO Rozhen),
Velimir Popov, Emil Ivanov (Irida Observatory)
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