动画: 紫金山-阿特拉斯彗星之彗尾的预测

2024年10月15日

Animation: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Tails Prediction
Credit & Copyright: Nico Lefaudeux

Explanation: How bright and strange will the tails of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS become? The comet has brightened dramatically over the few weeks as it passed its closest to the Sun and, just three days ago, passed its closest to the Earth. C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) became of the brightest comets of the past century over the past few days, but was unfortunately hard to see because it was so nearly superposed on the Sun. As the comet appears to move away from the Sun, it is becoming a remarkable sight — but may soon begin to fade. The featured animated video shows how the comet’s tails have developed, as viewed from Earth, and gives one prediction about how they might further develop. As shown in the video, heavier parts of the dust tail that trails the comet have begun to appear to point in nearly the opposite direction from lighter parts of the dust tail as well as the comet’s ion tail, the blue tail that is pushed directly out from the Sun by the solar wind.

Growing Gallery: Comet Tsuchinsan-ATLAS in 2024
Tomorrow’s picture: aurora sky

动画: 紫金山-阿特拉斯彗星之彗尾的预测
动画提供与版权: Nico Lefaudeux

说明: 紫金山-阿特拉斯彗星的彗尾会变得多明亮和奇特呢？这颗彗星在过去数星期中大幅增亮，当它靠近太阳并于2天前掠过地球时，成为了过去一世纪来最明亮的彗星之一。很遗憾的是，由于彗星C/2023 A3（紫金山-阿特拉斯）几乎与太阳重合，因此很难观测。在未来几天，这颗彗星看似会逐渐远离太阳，有机会成为令人赞叹的天文奇观。这幅主题动画，所呈现的是过去从地球所见到的彗尾发展，并对其未来的发展作进一步的预测和推演。如这部影片所示，彗星的尘尾接下来的指向，很可能会与受到太阳风推送而远离太阳的离子尾 几乎反向。

不断增长的画廊: 2024年的紫金山-阿特拉斯彗星
明日的图片: aurora sky