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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.   
      
                                   2023 March 24   
      
                                Outbound Comet ZTF   
                    Image Credit & Copyright: Rolando Ligustri   
      
      Explanation: Former darling of the northern sky Comet C/2022E3 (ZTF)   
      has faded. During its closest approach to our fair planet in early   
      February Comet ZTF was a mere 2.3 light-minutes distant. Then known as   
      the green comet, this visitor from the remote Oort Cloud is now nearly   
      13.3 light-minutes away. In this deep image, composed of exposures   
      captured on March 21, the comet still sports a broad, whitish dust tail   
      and greenish tinted coma though. Not far on the sky from Orion's bright   
      star Rigel, Comet ZTF shares the field of view with faint, dusty   
      nebulae and distant background galaxies. The telephoto frame is crowded   
      with Milky Way stars toward the constellation Eridanus. The influence   
      of Jupiter's gravity on the comet's orbit as ZTF headed for the inner   
      solar system, may have set the comet on an outbound journey, never to   
      return.   
      
                         Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend   
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