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The Greatest Cometary Show In Decades Continues In Southern Skies After Sunset
Paris, France (SPX) Jan 22, 2007 Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007, while no longer visible to observers in the Northern Hemisphere continues to dazzle sky watchers in the Southern Hemisphere with it's enomorus fan tail that grows in size with each passing night. Observers in Chile at the Paranal Observatory, were able to capture amazing some images, including a display reminiscent of an aurora! As the night deepens, and the comet had set, it reveals a sweeping fan that gives onlookers the impression they are witnessing an aurora, albeit the phenomenon is completely different. The structure in the tail is probably the fingerprint of past bursts of activity of the comet, releasing small dust particles whose paths are deflected by the solar light. The comet is now heading further south and should still be nicely visible for southern observers for several more days and probably longers. Comet C/2006 P1 was discovered in August 2006 by Robert McNaught on images taken by D. M. Burton with the 0.5-m Uppsala Schmidt telescope in the course of the Siding Spring Survey (Australia). It is one of 29 comets discovered by this telescope since early 2004 in a project to systematically search the southern skies for asteroids, or comets, that can pass close to the Earth. At that time, the comet was only a very faint, barely diffuse object, about 50 000 times fainter than what the unaided eye can see. However, as the comet came closer to the Sun, it brightened rapidly, in such a way as to become easily visible with the unaided eye in early January 2007, becoming brighter than Comet Hale-Bopp and Comet West, thereby earning its title of Great Comet of 2007. It even became the brightest comet in more than 40 years. Comet McNaught had its closest approach to the Sun on 12 January, being well inside the orbit of Mercury, with a minimum distance of only 17% the mean Earth-Sun distance. On January 13, it reached its maximum brightness when it was possibly brighter than Venus. In early January, it was visible in the northern hemisphere but after passing the Sun, it only became visible from the southern hemisphere, entering the constellation Microscopium (The Microscope) on 18 January. Related Links ESO observatories in Chile
Brightest Comet Ever Observed By Soho
Paris, France (ESA) Jan 17, 2007Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) has become the brightest comet that has been observed by the SOHO instruments since the start of routine operations in early 1996. In its own right, McNaught is the brightest comet observed in the last 40 years. The exact peak apparent magnitude of the comet is not yet determined, but it is currently estimated at -5.5 (see also the related link to the International Comet Quarterly's (ICQ) list of brightest comets). This makes it several magnitudes brighter than SOHO's previously observed brightest comet: C/2002 V1 (NEAT) at about -0.5 magnitude. |
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