NASA 오늘의 사진 (2022-10-08)

안녕하세요, 디큐입니다. 오늘은 NASA에서 어떤 우주의 모습을 비춰줄까요?
먼저 사진부터 감상하시죠!

 

이 사진의 제목은 Two Comets in Southern Skies 입니다. NASA에서 공식적으로 제공한 설명을 보시죠.

 

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.

 

오늘도 광활한 우주 앞에 인간이 얼마나 작은 존재인지 깨닫게 되네요.
저는 내일도 더 좋은 사진과 함께 돌아오겠습니다, 행복한 지구여행 되세요!