DOUBLE COMET: Two comets flying in tandem through space? Believe it. Andrew Catsaitis of Mangrove Mountain, Australia, photographed the pair on May 31st:
"What a spectacular sight," he says. Actually, we've seen these comets before. They're the biggest fragments of 73P/Schwassmann Wachmann 3, the famous crumbling comet that passed by Earth in mid-May. Comet 73P disppeared into the glare of the sun in late May, and now it's emerging again in southern skies--ideally placed for observers in, e.g., Australia and New Zealand.
The comet's main fragments (73P-B and C) are too dim to see with the naked eye, but they are easy targets for backyard telescopes. Look for them in the constellation Cetus (the Whale), which rises in the east a few hours before austral dawn: sky map. |
置顶卡
变色卡
千斤顶
显身卡
^^
ops:
: 晕