Infrared View of a Comet and Distant Galaxy

Wise_wise2014-0703c_1024

wise_WISE2014-0703c July 3rd, 2014

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's NEOWISE mission captured this picture of comet C/2012 K1 -- also known as comet Pan-STARRS -- as it swept across our skies on May 20, 2014. The comet is relatively close to us -- it was only about 143 million miles (230 million kilometers) from Earth when this picture was taken. It is seen passing a much more distant spiral galaxy, called NGC 3726, which is about 55 million light-years from Earth, or 2 trillion times farther away than the comet.

The image was made from data collected by the two infrared channels onboard the NEOWISE spacecraft, with the longer-wavelength channel (centered at 4.5 microns) mapped to red and the shorter-wavelength channel (3.4 microns) mapped to cyan.

Provider: Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

Image Source: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4206

Curator: Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Berkeley, CA, USA

Image Use Policy: Public Domain

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Pan-STARRS C/2012 K1 NGC 3726
Subject - Solar System
Interplanetary Body > Comet
Galaxy > Type > Spiral

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Cyan WISE Infrared (Near-IR) 3.4 µm
Orange WISE Infrared (Near-IR) 4.6 µm
Spectrum_base
Cyan
Orange
Wise_wise2014-0703c_1280
×
ID
WISE2014-0703c
Subject Category
A.2.2   C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
Pan-STARRS, C/2012 K1, NGC 3726
Credits
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Release Date
2014-07-03
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4206
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
WISE, WISE
Instrument
Color Assignment
Cyan, Orange
Band
Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
Near-IR, Near-IR
Central Wavelength
3400, 4600
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
URL
http://wise.astro.ucla.edu
Name
Email
outreach@ssl.berkeley.edu
Telephone
Address
7 Gauss Way
City
Berkeley
State/Province
CA
Postal Code
94720
Country
USA
Rights
Public Domain
Publisher
Publisher ID
wise
Resource ID
Resource URL
/image/wise/WISE2014-0703c
Related Resources
Metadata Date
2015-05-21T21:15:37Z
Metadata Version
1.2
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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