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   TZUTC: -0800   
   CHRS: LATIN-1 2   
                           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 December 24   
      
                                Comet 2022 E3 (ZTF)   
                      Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett   
      
      Explanation: Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered by astronomers using   
      the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility this year   
      in early March. Since then the new long-period comet has brightened   
      substantially and is now sweeping across the northern constellation   
      Corona Borealis in predawn skies. It's still too dim to see without a   
      telescope though. But this fine telescopic image from December 19 does   
      show the comet's brighter greenish coma, short broad dust tail, and   
      long faint ion tail stretching across a 2.5 degree wide field-of-view.   
      On a voyage through the inner Solar System comet 2022 E3 will be at   
      perihelion, its closest to the Sun, in the new year on January 12 and   
      at perigee, its closest to our fair planet, on February 1. The   
      brightness of comets is notoriously unpredictable, but by then C/2022   
      E3 (ZTF) could become only just visible to the eye in dark night skies.   
      
                       Tomorrow's picture: stars and mittens   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.   
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                         A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,   
                              NASA Science Activation   
                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
   --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6   
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