NASA Releases Photo of Comet Lemmon over High Tatras as Astronomy Picture of Day

Bratislava, 26 October (TASR) - The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) this week published a photograph of Comet Lemmon over the High Tatra mountains as the prestigious Astronomy Picture of the Day, TASR has learnt from Tomas Slovinsky, who took the photo and is the director of a civil association called Astronomy for All. This was the tenth time that Slovinsky has taken the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day. "I arrived on location a day early to set up test shots, review the composition and prepare for the final shoot. It was the last clear night on which it was possible to capture the comet setting over the same peaks at this angle," said Slovinsky, adding that he captured the image from the village of Mlynica. NASA explained that Comet Lemmon is passing nearest to the Earth this week and currently has two long tails: a blue ion tail and a white dust one. "The ion tail is being pushed away from the Sun by the ever-present but ever-changing solar wind, and its structure is also created by how much gas is ejected at any one moment. It glows because it is ionised by high energy sunlight. The dust tail is pushed away from the comet by sunlight and shines by reflecting sunlight," stated NASA But the sky itself isn't the only interesting object in the picture. Slavkovsky Peak can be seen on the left, Prostredny Peak in the middle and Lomnicky Peak, home of the observatory from which several comets were discovered in the past, on the right. NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a prestigious award given to the most interesting astronomical photograph of the day. Its slogan is Explore the Universe, and since the project was launched in 1995 it's become one of the most respected of its kind in the world. am/df/ko