Copyright:
Velimir Popov & Emil Ivanov
(IRIDA Observatory)
中文翻譯:
✨【彗星愛博捷（Comet Lovejoy）神秘尾部構造✨】
彗星 C/2014 Q2（愛博捷）當前顯示出令人驚嘆的細節，特別是它的離子尾部。離子尾部是由被陽光的紫外線能量激發的氣體組成，並且受到太陽風的推動形成。太陽風本身具有結構性，並且受到太陽複雜且不斷變化的磁場影響。
這些變化的太陽風與彗星核的不同氣體噴流共同作用，導致了尾部複雜的結構。隨著時間推移，彗星愛博捷的尾部結構沿著風的方向向外運動，並展現著波浪狀的外觀。離子尾的藍色主要由重新組合的碳氧化物分子主導，而彗星頭部周圍的綠色光暈則主要來自少量的重新組合雙原子碳分子。
這幅三面拼圖的圖片是九天前在保加利亞的IRIDA天文台拍攝的。愛博捷彗星在兩週前達到其最接近地球的距離，並將在大約十天後最接近太陽。隨著它返回外太陽系，這顆彗星將會逐漸變暗，並需在約8000年後才能再度回歸。
#彗星愛博捷 #CometLovejoy #NASA #天文學 #太陽風 #離子尾 #彗星 #科學探索 #宇宙奇觀 #太空研究
🌌🔭✨
原文:
What causes the structure in Comet Lovejoy’s tail? Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy), which is currently at naked-eye brightness and near its brightest, has been showing an exquisitely detailed ion tail. As the name implies, the ion tail is made of ionized gas — gas energized by ultraviolet light from the Sun and pushed outward by the solar wind. The solar wind is quite structured and sculpted by the Sun’s complex and ever changing magnetic field. The effect of the variable solar wind combined with different gas jets venting from the comet’s nucleus accounts for the tail’s complex structure. Following the wind, structure in Comet Lovejoy’s tail can be seen to move outward from the Sun even alter its wavy appearance over time. The blue color of the ion tail is dominated by recombining carbon monoxide molecules, while the green color of the coma surrounding the head of the comet is created mostly by a slight amount of recombining diatomic carbon molecules. The featured three-panel mosaic image was taken nine days ago from the IRIDA Observatory in Bulgaria. Comet Lovejoy made it closest pass to the Earth two weeks ago and will be at its closest to the Sun in about ten days. After that, the comet will fade as it heads back into the outer Solar System, to return only in about 8,000 years. Astrophysicists: Browse 950+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library
來源:NASA每日圖片
