The Long Tails of Comet NEOWISE
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Petr Horalek
This Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) now sweeps through
our fair planet's northern skies.
Its
long tails
stretch across this deep skyview from Suchy Vrch, Czech Republic.
Recorded on the night of July 13/14,
the composite of untracked foreground
and tracked and filtered sky exposures
teases out details in the comet's tail not visible to the
unaided eye.
Faint structures extend to the top of the frame,
over 20 degrees from the comet's bright coma.
Pushed out by the pressure of
sunlight itself, the broad curve of the comet's yellowish
dust tail is easy to see by eye.
But the fainter, more bluish tail is separate from the
reflective
comet dust.
The fainter tail is an ion tail, formed as ions from the
cometary coma are dragged outward by magnetic fields in the solar wind
and fluoresce in the sunlight.
Outbound
NEOWISE is climbing higher in northern evening skies,
coming closest to Earth on July 23rd.