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Birthday · July 31, 2021

Remembering NEOWISE

July 31, 2021

On this day, the universe repeated one of its rarest tricks: it arranged dust, light, memory, and possibility into a person no equation...

Remembering NEOWISE

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APOD published July 31, 2021. Credit: Petr Horalek. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.

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Remembering NEOWISE

Original APOD · July 31, 2021

It was just last July. If you could see the stars of the Big Dipper, you could find Comet NEOWISE in your evening sky. After sunset denizens of the north could look for the naked-eye comet below the bowl of that famous celestial kitchen utensil and above the northwestern horizon. The comet looked like a fuzzy 'star' with a tail, though probably not so long a tail as in this memorable skyview recorded from the Czech Republic on July 23th, 2020, near the comet's closest approach to planet Earth. Photographs of C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) often did show the comet's broad dust tail and fainter but separate bluish ion tail extending farther than the eye could follow. Skygazers around the world were delighted to witness Comet NEOWISE, surprise visitor from the outer Solar System. Notable Comet NEOWISE Images 2020: July 31 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24

Image credit: Petr Horalek

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