Comet 13P/Olbers

Comet 13P/Olbers
Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett
Explanation: Not a paradox, Comet 13P/Olbers is returning to the inner Solar System after 68 years.

The periodic,
Halley-type
comet will reach its next
perihelion or closest approach to the Sun on June 30
and has become a target for binocular viewing low in
planet
Earth’s northern hemisphere
night skies.

But this sharp telescopic image of 13P is
composed of
stacked exposures made on the night of June 25.

It easily reveals shifting details in the bright comet’s
torn and tattered ion tail
buffeted by the wind from
an active Sun, along with a
broad, fanned-out
dust tail and slightly greenish coma.

The frame spans over two degrees
across a background of faint stars
toward the constellation Lynx.