The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a spacecraft that studies the sun, has been taking rather spectacular photos of comet McNaught. See here, for example. But the recent news that’s been exciting everyone are the comet pictures from the newer twin-spacecraft Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatories (STEREO), such as this one of the comet’s tail (the sharp lines are artifacts due to bright objects in the background):
Click the image for a larger version. They put together a number of images to make a rather impressive movie of the comet, with a great deal of detail in a sort of fly through (or by) the tail. Click here for the low resolution mpg version, and here for a medium resolution one. The links to most high resolution one (30 MBs!!) in Quicktime format can be found here. All of this can be found at this site. Quoting:
These images are very likely the most detailed images ever taken of a comet while it is that close (0.17AU) to the Sun, and also (in my opinion) one of, if not the most, beautiful uninterrupted sequence of images of a comet ever made.
-cvj
Thanks again, Amara!
stunning and magnificent. thank you, wow…
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Why no angels, Pyracantha? That’s exactly what it looks like. I can’t believe I did not see that before… Excellent point!
-cvj
My first thought, beyond wow, was that it looked like an angel’s wing too! We had an angel on top of our Christmas tree last year, so they certainly exist. Hmm, or was it a fairy?
Can we say that this is the finest comet in living memory?
Since 1744? http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Klinkenberg.jpg
It’s interesting to compare comet West (1976). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_West
West had much the same tail structure and would have no doubt displayed the same effects if it had passed as close to the Sun as McNaught (it was twice as far away). Further, I imagine that the images being produced of McNaught are much finer what with the advent of digital cameras, not to mention the odd space probe!
I think this one beats them all, especially as it has such a nice name 🙂
I would really like to know who is making spectroscopic measurements of this comet, to measure isotopic abundances like deuterium, and of other noble gases, nitrogen and so on. The comet experts I know told me that such kinds of measurements are difficult/impossible because the comet is too close to the Sun. And I am thinking: Yes, but astronomers are _so clever_, surely some excellent data is being acquired by someone given particular geometries and sun-blocking devices. I will continue to ask around. Since the STEREO has 3 sets of a suite of instruments, perhaps their dataset on this comet will be the best (once I learn what measurements they made).
It looks like an angel’s wing.
I know… no angels. OK, it looks like an egret’s wing. A celestial egret.
I have to say, watching the comet hanging in the sky over parliament house is pretty cool…
Thanks for mentioning the videos of STEREO passing through the tail. I’m really in awe of the brightness and volume of material this comet has produced. With a fair bit of processing, I can bring out a little bit of the curve in the tail in the pictures I took from campus. Then, I look at what they can see from the southern hemisphere and am filled with all manner of envy.