NEOWISE Wise to Comet Lovejoy

Wise_wise2015-0326_1024

wise_WISE2015-0326 March 26th, 2015

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

The NEOWISE spacecraft viewed comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) for a second time on January 30, 2015, as the comet passed through the closest point to our sun along its 14,000-year orbit, at a solar distance of 120 million miles (193 million kilometers). NEOWISE imaged the comet more than 20 times through its perihelion passage in late January 2015, from a distance of 70 million miles (112 million kilometers). NEOWISE's first images of the comet were taken in November 2014, when the comet was nearly a third farther than its closest distance from the sun.

In this image refinement of eight exposures, north is down and slightly right, and east is to the right and slightly up. The blue tail, composed mostly of ionized particles and small dust, extends in the anti-sunward direction, while the comet's path across the sky is mostly down and to the left in this image. The frame is half a degree on the sky, or about 62,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) at the comet.

Color in this image corresponds to specific infrared wavelengths. Blue represents light emitted at 3.4-micron wavelengths, while orange represents 4.6-micron light.

Comet Lovejoy was the brightest comet in Earth's sky in early 2015. A chart of its location in the sky during dates in January 2015 is at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19103. For more information about NEOWISE (the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer), see http://neowise.ipac.caltech.edu.

Provider: Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

Image Source: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4524

Curator: Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Berkeley, CA, USA

Image Use Policy: Public Domain

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Lovejoy C/2014 Q2
Subject - Solar System
Interplanetary Body > Comet

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Cyan WISE Infrared (Near-IR) 3.4 µm
Orange WISE Infrared (Near-IR) 4.6 µm
Spectrum_base
Cyan
Orange
Wise_wise2015-0326_1280
×
ID
WISE2015-0326
Subject Category
A.2.2  
Subject Name
Lovejoy, C/2014 Q2
Credits
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
Release Date
2015-03-26
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4524
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
WISE, WISE
Instrument
Color Assignment
Cyan, Orange
Band
Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
Near-IR, Near-IR
Central Wavelength
3400, 4600
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
URL
http://wise.astro.ucla.edu
Name
Email
outreach@ssl.berkeley.edu
Telephone
Address
7 Gauss Way
City
Berkeley
State/Province
CA
Postal Code
94720
Country
USA
Rights
Public Domain
Publisher
Publisher ID
wise
Resource ID
Resource URL
/image/wise/WISE2015-0326
Related Resources
Metadata Date
2015-05-21T21:03:18Z
Metadata Version
1.2
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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