Tuesday, December 31, 2024

A Meteor, Comet Lovejoy, The California Nebula & The Pleiades Star Cluster

A Meteor, Comet Lovejoy, The California Nebula & The Pleiades Star Cluster


In this European Southern Observatory (ESO) image, nightfall raises the curtain on a theatrical display taking place in the cloudless skies over La Silla. In a scene humming with activity, the major players captured here are Comet Lovejoy, glowing green in the center of the image; the Pleiades above and to the right; and the California Nebula, providing some contrast in the form of a red arc of gas directly to the right of Lovejoy.

At a distance of about 444 light-years, the Pleiades star cluster is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and the most obvious star cluster to the naked eye in the night sky.

A meteor adds its own streak of light to the scene, seeming to plunge into the hazy pool of green light collecting along the horizon.

The telescopes of La Silla provide an audience for this celestial performance, and a thin shroud of low altitude cloud clings to the plain below the observatory streaked by the Panamericana Highway.

Comet Lovejoy’s long tail is being pushed away from the comet by the solar wind. Carbon compounds that have been excited by ultraviolet radiation from the Sun give it its striking green hue.

This was the first time the comet has passed through the inner Solar System and ignited so spectacularly in over 11,000 years. Its highly elliptical orbit about the Sun—adjusted slightly due to meddling planets — means that it will not grace our skies for another 8,000 years after it rounded the Sun and began its lonely voyage back into the cold outer regions of the Solar System.


Credit: P. Horálek/ESO
Release Date: Jan. 26, 2015

#NASA #ESO #Astronomy #Space #Science #Earth #Airglow #Meteor #CometLovejoy #StarCluster #Pleiades #Messier45 #Nebulae #CaliforniaNebula #NGC1499 #Sh2220 #EmissionNebula #Perseus #Taurus #Constellations #MilkyWayGalaxy #Universe #LaSillaObservatory #Chile #Europe #STEM #Education

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