麦克诺彗星壮丽的彗尾

2024年10月6日

The Magnificent Tail of Comet McNaught
Image Credit & Copyright: Robert H. McNaught

Explanation: Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007, grew a spectacularly long and filamentary tail. The magnificent tail spread across the sky and was visible for several days to Southern Hemisphere observers just after sunset. The amazing ion tail showed its greatest extent on long-duration, wide-angle camera exposures. During some times, just the tail itself was visible just above the horizon for many northern observers as well. Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught), estimated to have attained a peak brightness of magnitude -5 (minus five), was caught by the comet’s discoverer in the featured image just after sunset in January 2007 from Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. Comet McNaught, the brightest comet in decades, then faded as it moved further into southern skies and away from the Sun and Earth. Over the next month, Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS, a candidate for the Great Comet of 2024, should display its most spectacular tails visible from the Earth.

Tomorrow’s picture: another tall tail

麦克诺彗星壮丽的彗尾
影像提供与版权: Robert H. McNaught

说明: 有2007年大彗星之称的麦克诺彗星，拥有颀长壮观的辫状彗尾。而它绵延横过天空的壮丽彗尾，在南半球刚日落后的天空中，连续数日可见。尤其使用广角相机进行长曝光取像时，这道令人赞叹的离子尾更具有最大的伸展度。在某些时间点，光是彗尾本身的最大亮度就有负5等，就如这张由此彗星的发现者在2007年1月日落后，摄于澳大利亚塞汀泉天文台的影像所示。数十年来最明亮的麦克诺彗星（C/2006 P1 McNaught），后来随着它深入南天远离太阳与地球而逐渐变暗。在接下来的一个月之中，有机会成为2024年大彗星的紫金山-阿特拉斯，其彗尾应会在地球夜空中大展风华。