Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: How bright and strange will the tails of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS become? The comet has brightened dramatically over the few weeks as it passed its closest to the Sun and, just two days ago, passed its closest to the Earth. became of the brightest comets of the past century over the past few days, but was unfortunately hard to see because it was so nearly superposed on the Sun. In the coming days as the comet appears to move away from the Sun, it may become a remarkable sight. The featured animated video shows how the comet's tails have developed, as viewed from Earth, and gives one prediction about how they might further develop. Quite possibly, as shown in the video, the dust tail that trails the comet will begin to appear to point in nearly the opposite direction from its ion tail, the tail that is pushed directly out from the Sun by the solar wind.