Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: Comet Hyakutake is shown photographed the night of March 27 in Arizona, USA, with a cactus in the foreground. Polaris, the north star, is the bright star seen just to the upper right of the comet's head. Today Comet Hyakutake reaches its closest approach to the Sun. Comet Hyakutake is now at its intrinsic brightest, but because of its distance from the Earth, it will appear less bright to us than it did during its closest approach to the Earth in late March. In fact, due to the comet's angular proximity to the Sun, it will difficult to see at all from the Earth! Comet Hyakutake will reach less than one quarter of the Earth-Sun distance - inside the orbit of Mercury. Comet Hyakutake will not venture near the Sun again for another about 15,000 years.