                        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.

                               2024 November 6
     A town is shown in the foreground surrounded by tall mountains with
   even taller mountains in the distance. Above them all is a bright white
    streak that is a comet with both a tail and an anti-tail. High above
       are stars in the night sky. Please see the explanation for more
                            detailed information.

                 Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas over the Dolomites
                     Credit & Copyright: Alessandra Masi

   Explanation: Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas is now headed back to the outer
   Solar System. The massive dusty snowball put on quite a show during its
   trip near the Sun, resulting in many impressive pictures from planet
   Earth during October. The featured image was taken in mid-October and
   shows a defining visual feature of the comet -- its impressive
   anti-tail. The image captures Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) with
   impressively long dust and ion tails pointing up and away from the Sun,
   while the strong anti-tail -- composed of more massive dust particles
   -- trails the comet and points down and (nearly) toward the
   recently-set Sun. In the foreground is village of Tai di Cadore, Italy,
   with the tremendous Dolomite Mountains in the background. Another
   comet, C/2024 S1 (ATLAS), once a candidate to rival Comet
   Tsuchinshan-Atlas in brightness, broke up last week during its close
   approach to our Sun.

              Growing Gallery: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in 2024
                       Tomorrow's picture: open space
     __________________________________________________________________

       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.

