龐斯-布魯克斯彗星的離子尾巴
Comet Pons-Brooks' Ion Tail
發表日期:2024-03-26
龐斯-布魯克斯彗星的尾巴很有看頭。 這顆噴發的骯髒雪球於 1385 年首次被發現,每隔 71 年就會繞回太陽系內部,這一次,它開始在深層相機曝光中大顯身手。 在特寫圖片中,淡藍色的流線是離子尾部,由被太陽風推離彗核的帶電分子組成。 在太陽風和彗核旋轉的作用下,離子尾總是指向遠離太陽的方向。 現在,用雙筒望遠鏡在傍晚的天空中可以看到 12 P/Pons-Brooks 彗星朝西北方向移動。 預計這顆經常閃爍的彗星平均會繼續變亮,甚至在 4 月 8 日即將到來的日食的全食路徑上的人可以在白天用肉眼看到這顆彗星。
原文:Comet Pons-Brooks has quite a tail to tell. First discovered in 1385, this erupting dirty snowball loops back into our inner Solar System every 71 years and, this time, is starting to put on a show for deep camera exposures. In the featured picture, the light blue stream is the ion tail which consists of charged molecules pushed away from the comet's nucleus by the solar wind. The ion tail, shaped by the Sun's wind and the comet's core's rotation, always points away from the Sun. Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks is now visible with binoculars in the early evening sky toward the northwest, moving perceptibly from night to night. The frequently flaring comet is expected to continue to brighten, on the average, and may even become visible with the unaided eye -- during the day -- to those in the path of totality of the coming solar eclipse on April 8.
※ 本文由萌芽機器人自動轉貼自每日一天文圖(Astronomy Picture of the Day,APOD),原文為英文,正體中文是透過 DeepL 翻譯及 OpenCC 進行自動處理,內容僅供參考,若有任何錯誤之處還請見諒!
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