                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2025 November 25
   A night skyscape is shown over snowcapped mountains. On the left is the
   band of the Milky Way Galaxy, while on the right is a bright comet with
     two tails -- a white tail going up and trailing to the right and a
   longer blue tail going up and trailing off to the left. Please see the
                 explanation for more detailed information.

                       Comet Lemmon and the Milky Way
             Image Credit & Copyright: Lin Zixuan (Tsinghua U.)

   Explanation: What did Comet Lemmon look like when it was at its best?
   One example is pictured here, featuring three celestial spectacles all
   at different distances. The closest spectacle is the snowcapped Meili
   Mountains, part of the Himalayas in China. The middle marvel is Comet
   Lemmon near its picturesque best early this month, showing not only a
   white dust tail trailing off to the right but its blue solar
   wind-distorted ion tail trailing off to the left. Far in the distance
   on the left is the magnificent central plane of our Milky Way Galaxy,
   featuring dark dust, red nebula, and including billions of Sun-like
   stars. Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is already fading as it heads back into
   the outer Solar System, while the Himalayan mountains will gradually
   erode over the next billion years. The Milky Way Galaxy, though, will
   live on -- forming new mountains and comets -- for many billions of
   years into the future.

                   Tomorrow's picture: huge ball of stars
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

