The American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) published on Wednesday as the prestigious astronomical image of the day a photo that was taken in Slovakia and that captures Comet Lemmon over the High Tatras. TASR was informed about this by Tomáš Slovinský, the author of the photo and the director of the Astronomy for All citizens’ association. For the photographer, this is the tenth consecutive award for the NASA picture of the day. You can find the picture at the end of the article.
“I arrived on location a day early to create test shots, research the composition and prepare for the final shoot. It was the last clear night on which the setting comet could be captured over the same shields at this angle,” Slovinský added, adding that he captured the image from the village of Mlynica.
As described by NASA, Comet Lemmon will arrive this week closest to the Earth and it is currently possible to observe its two different tails – blue ion and white dust. “The ion tail is pushed away from the Sun by the ubiquitous, ever-changing solar wind and reveals the structure created by the amount of gas the comet is ejecting at any given moment. It glows because it is ionized by high-energy sunlight. The dust tail is illuminated by sunlight from the comet and shines by its reflection,” NASA reports.
However, the sky itself is not the only interesting object in the picture. On the left you can see Slavkovský štít, in the center Prostredný hrot and on the right Lomnický štít, the home of the observatory from which several comets were discovered in the past. NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day is a prestigious award given to the most interesting astronomical photo of the day. The motto is Discover the Universe and since 1995, when the project was launched, it has become one of the most respected of its kind in the world.
