Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2018 August 23
                                      [2]
                            Comet, Heart and Soul
  Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Juan Carlos Casado [4] (TWAN [5] , Earth and
                                  Stars [6] )

Explanation: The greenish coma of comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner [7]  stands out
at the left of this telephoto skyscape spanning over 10 degrees toward the
northern constellations Cassiopeia and Perseus. Captured on August 17, the
periodic comet is the known parent body of the upcoming Draconid [8]  meteor
shower. Predicted to be at its brightest next month, the comet is [9] actually
in the foreground of the rich starfield, only about 4 light-minutes from our
fair planet. Giacobini-Zinner should remain too faint for your eye to see
though, like the colorful Heart and Soul nebulae near the center of the
sensitive digital camera's field of view. But the pair of open star clusters
[10] at the right, h and Chi Persei, could just be seen by the unaided eye
from dark locations. The Heart and Soul nebulae with their own embedded
clusters of young stars a million or so years old, are each over 200
light-years across and 6 to 7 thousand light-years away. They are part of a
large, active star forming complex [11]  sprawling along the Perseus spiral
arm of our Milky Way Galaxy. Also known as the Double Cluster, h and Chi
Persei [11]  are located at about that same distance. Periodic
Giacobini-Zinner was visited by a spacecraft from Earth when the repurposed
International Cometary Explorer [12] passed through its tail in September
1985.

                        Tomorrow's picture: M20 and M21

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
< [13] | Archive [14] | Submissions [15] | Index [16] | Search [17] | Calendar
  [18] | RSS [19] | Education [20] | About APOD [21] | Discuss [22] | > [23]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [24] (MTU [25] ) & Jerry Bonnell [26]
                                  (UMCP [27] )
          NASA Official:  Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [28] .
              NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [29]
              A service of: ASD [30]  at NASA [31]  / GSFC [32]
                           & Michigan Tech. U. [33]
----------
Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1808/21p-160818_85_santllop.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] http://www.twanight.org/casado
  [5] http://www.twanight.org
  [6] http://starryearth.com/
  [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 21P/Giacobini%E2%80%93Zinner
  [8] ap111019.html
  [9] https://theskylive.com/21p-info
  [10] ap160924.html
  [11] http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/multim...
wiseimage20100524.html
  [12] http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawal...
02070836-isee-3.html
  [13] ap180822.html
  [14] archivepix.html
  [15] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [16] lib/aptree.html
  [17] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apo...
  [18] calendar/allyears.html
  [19] /apod.rss
  [20] lib/edlinks.html
  [21] lib/about_apod.html
  [22] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?dat...
  [23] ap180824.html
  [24] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [25] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [26] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnel...
  [27] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [28] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [29] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Priv...
  [30] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [31] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [32] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [33] http://www.mtu.edu/

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A39 (Windows/32)
 * Origin: FIDONet - The Positronium Repository (1:393/68)