全食日与彗星

Total Eclipse and Comets
Image Credit & Copyright: Lin Zixuan (Tsinghua U.)

Explanation: Not one, but two comets appeared near the Sun during last week’s total solar eclipse. The expected comet was Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, but it was disappointingly dimmer than many had hoped. However, relatively unknown Comet SOHO-5008 also appeared in long duration camera exposures. This comet was the 5008th comet identified on images taken by ESA & NASA‘s Sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft. Likely much smaller, Comet SOHO-5008 was a sungrazer which disintegrated within hours as it passed too near the Sun. The featured image is not only unusual for capturing two comets during an eclipse, but one of the rare times that a sungrazing comet has been photographed from the Earth’s surface. Also visible in the image is the sprawling corona of our Sun and the planets Mercury (left) and Venus (right). Of these planets and comets, only Venus was easily visible to millions of people in the dark shadow of the Moon that crossed North America on April 8.

Solar Eclipse Imagery: Notable Submissions to APOD

Tomorrow’s picture: galaxies in the river

全食日与彗星
影像提供与版权: Lin Zixuan（林子轩） (Tsinghua U.)

说明: 上星期的日全食期间，太阳附近出现了不只1颗彗星。预期会出现的彗星是庞士-布鲁克斯彗星（ 12P/Pons-Brooks），但它让许多人失望了，因为亮度远不如预期。不过，在长曝光相机影像里，倒是相对不知名的SOHO-5008彗星也现身其中。这颗彗星是从欧洲航天局和美国国家航空航天局的太阳轨道SOHO卫星所拍摄的影像里，辨识出的第5008颗彗星。可能极为娇小的SOHO-5008彗星，是一颗掠日彗星，在近距离掠过太阳后的数个小时之内就崩解了。这张主题影像不仅因在日全食期间记录到2颗彗星而显得不寻常，更因为是极罕见的从地面拍到掠日彗星。影像中还可以看到太阳广袤的日冕、水星（左）和金星（右）。在4月8日扫过北美洲的黝黑月影下方，这幅影像所呈现的行星和彗星之中，只有金星轻易可为聚集在北美各地的数百万观察者所见。