2026 May 12 - Conjunction of Comet R3 PanSTARRS and the Orion Nebula

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:02]Greetings and welcome to the Astronomy Picture of the Day podcast.

[00:00:07]Today's picture is titled The Conjunction of Comet R3 Pan-STARRS and the Orion Nebula.

[00:00:15]So, what do we see here?

[00:00:18]Well, here on the left we see the Orion Nebula, a star-forming region about 2 million years old. And while that may sound very old to us, it's very young astronomically speaking. And in fact, much younger than the comet to the right. So, while the comet has only been visible recently, and this is comet R3 Pan-STARRS that we've been looking at for the last month or so, the comet itself is a relic from the origin of our solar system 4 and 1/2 billion years ago. So, more than a thousand times older than the Orion Nebula. So, something very old there as well as something very young in the image.

[00:01:01]Now, this is a composite image, and in order to take this, there was 2 days of exposure looking at the Orion Nebula to bring out all of the detail that we see.

[00:01:12]That's a very long exposure. To get the comet in there, that is a separate image that was taken just the one night. So, the two night first two nights just looking at the Orion Nebula, third night the comet was there, and then focusing allowing the comet in the image as well.

[00:01:30]And then putting all of that together to get the composite image we see. So, that allows the photographer to get the detail of the Orion Nebula as well as the comet. Now, the comet we see with the head pointing toward the upper left-hand side of the image, and the long tail stretching back down. And comet Pan-STARRS has been well known for for very strong tail that has been quite visible.

[00:01:59]Now, the gases within there are then ionized by sunlight, which causes them to glow. And that's why they give off distinct colors based on the composition, the material that is vaporized off the surface of the comet, that part that we can't even see known as the cometary nucleus, is at the middle of that the head of the comet up there, but completely invisible at this scale.

[00:02:24]It's just a ball of icy material with some dust and other materials mixed in, but when that comes close to the sun, it is vaporized, bits of it are vaporized and then are pushed back by the solar wind, giving us the comet tail that we see.

[00:02:40]Now, that tail will start to dissipate as the comet heads further out into the solar system and eventually disappear altogether, making the comet essentially invisible because that ball of ice and rock when it is out in the depths of the solar system will not be able to be seen. We only can see comets when they come in close.

[00:03:03]In fact, comet Pan-STARRS is heading out of the solar system altogether.

[00:03:09]So, it has enough energy that it will be able to escape and has reached escape velocity and will continue traveling out into interstellar space. So, unlike some comets that are periodic comets and come back again and again, comet R3 Pan-STARRS made its one and only visit that we had over this past month.

[00:03:32]So, that was our picture of the day titled the conjunction of comet R3 Pan-STARRS and the Orion Nebula.

[00:03:40]We'll be back again tomorrow for the next picture previewed to be a cluster of stars.

[00:03:47]So, we'll see what that is about tomorrow.

[00:03:49]And until then, have a great day, everyone, and I will see you in class.