Discover the cosmosEach day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation:Comet 220P is unexpectedly bright.
Normally, periodic Comet 220P/McNaughtis so dim that to see it requires a telescope.
Two surprising outbursts this year, however, have made it about 20,000 times brighter than usual, so that it is now visible with binoculars and long-durationcamera exposures.
As expected, Comet 220P continues to orbit the SunbetweenMarsandJupiterwith a period of over 5 years.
Thefeatured long duration exposure, taken 10 days ago from South Africa, shows thecomet‘s brightgreen headand shortdust tail.
Reasons for Comet 220P’s impressive outburstsare unknown but could be caused by therelease of built-up subsurfacegas orcomet quakes.
Comet 220P will pass aboutone Earth-Sun distancefrom the Earthin October, after which it is expected tofade quicklyas it begins its return to the far part of its orbit.
Tomorrow’s picture:Moon dark