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                           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 April 18   
      
                               Comet C/2025 F2 SWAN   
                      Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett   
      
      Explanation: In late March, the comet now designated C/2025 F2 SWAN was   
      found independently by citizen scientists Vladimir Bezugly, Michael   
      Mattiazzo, and Rob Matson while examining publicly available image data   
      from the Solar Wind ANisotropies (SWAN) camera on the sun-staring SOHO   
      spacecraft. Comet SWAN's coma, its greenish color a signature of   
      diatomic carbon molecules fluorescing in sunlight, is at lower left in   
      this telescopic image. SWAN's faint ion tail extends nearly two degrees   
      toward the upper right across the field of view. The interplanetary   
      scene was captured in clear but moonlit skies from June Lake,   
      California on April 14. Seen against background of stars toward the   
      constellation Andromeda, the comet was then some 10 light-minutes from   
      our fair planet. Now a target for binoculars and small telescopes in   
      northern hemisphere morning skies this comet SWAN is headed for a   
      perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, on May 1. That will bring   
      this visitor from the distant Oort cloud almost as close to the Sun as   
      the orbit of inner planet Mercury.   
      
                 Tomorrow's picture: interplanetary post-modernism   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
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