The Sun-watching
SOHO spacecraft has a front row seat to observe Comet
McNaught, the brightest icy wanderer to light the sky in three
decades.
This view is one of the parting shots of Comet McNaught
taken by the Solar and
Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) over the last few days as the bright
object passed across the field of vision of its LASCO C3
coronograph instrument [video].
The comet
first entered SOHO’s vision on Jan. 12, and will pass out of view on Jan. 16. The
comet’s current brightness is estimated at magnitudes of -2 or -3 [images]. A magnitude -3 object shines about four times
brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
-- SPACE.com Staff
Credit: SOHO/NASA/ESA.
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