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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.   
      
                                  2022 October 8   
      
                           Two Comets in Southern Skies   
              Image Credit & Copyright: Jose J. Chambo (Cometografia)   
      
      Explanation: Heading for its closest approach to the Sun or perihelion   
      on December 20, comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) remains a sight for   
      telescopic observers as it sweeps through planet Earth's southern   
      hemisphere skies. First time visitor from the remote Oort cloud this   
      comet PanSTARRS sports a greenish coma and whitish dust tail about half   
      a degree long at the upper left in a deep image from September 21. It   
      also shares the starry field of view toward the constellation Scorpius   
      with another comet, 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, seen about 1 degree   
      below and right of PanSTARRS. Astronomers estimate that first time   
      visitor comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) has been inbound from the Oort   
      cloud for some 3 million years along a hyperbolic orbit.   
      Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 is more familiar though. The periodic comet   
      loops through its own elliptical orbit, from just beyond the orbit of   
      Jupiter to the vicinity of Earth's orbit, once every 5.4 years. Just   
      passing in the night, this comet PanSTARRS is about 20 light-minutes   
      from Earth in the September 21 image. Seen to be disintegrating since   
      1995, Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 was about 7.8 light-minutes away.   
      
                      Tomorrow's picture: northern skylights   
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          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
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