Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
April 27, 1999
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
April 27, 1999
Explanation: Another large snowball is falling toward the Sun. Comet Lee was discovered two weeks ago by Steve Lee (AAO) in Australia, and is expected to brighten as it approaches the inner Solar System. Comet Lee is not expected to become a naked-eye object, though, with recent projections guessing it will peak at magnitude 7 in July. Starting in May, the large piece of dirty ice officially known as Comet C/1999 H1 Lee will be visible to northern observers. Comet Lee is the fuzzy patch in the above picture taken on April 16 from Loomberah, Australia.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Technical Rep.:
Jay Norris.
Specific rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA/
GSFC
&
Michigan Tech. U.
