[New post] Astronomy Photo of the Day: 3/10/15 — Most Dazzling Image Yet of Comet Lovejoy (Slideshow)

New post on From Quarks to Quasars Astronomy Photo of the Day: 3/10/15 — Most Dazzling Image Yet of Comet Lovejoy (Slideshow) by Jaime Trosper Image Credit: Fermilab’s Marty Murphy, Nikolay Kuropatkin, Huan Lin and Brian Yanny In an image taken back in December, we see Comet Lovejoy in dazzling high-resolution, amazingly, it was captured by Fermilab's powerful Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which happens to be—at least according to their website—the world's most powerful digital camera. During the time at which this image was captured, Lovejoy (otherwise known as C/2011 W3) was around 51 million miles from Earth—a staggering distance considering the fact that Lovejoy's nucleus is just three miles (almost 5 kilometers) across. Its coma, on the other hand—which is composed of ionized gas and bits of dust—is much larger, stretching around half a million miles (more specifically, it extends 400,000 miles/643,740 kilometers across).  As you can see, this image is a composite, put together using 62 individual shots. You can learn more about it by following this link, or learn more about the Dark Energy Camerahere. [su_box title="SLIDESHOW: See Lovejoy Shine" box_color="#000000" title_color="#ffffff"] [easyrotator]erf_12_1397975534/erc_31_1421680352[/easyrotator][/su_box] SEE ALSO: "Comet Lovejoy Dazzles in New Time-Lapse Video" Jaime Trosper | March 10, 2015 at 8:08 am | Tags: APOD, Astrophotography, C/2011 W3, comet lovejoy, dark energy survey, DECam, Fermilab, Skywatching, Solar System | Categories: Astronomy Photos | URL: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/?p=37535