{"id":590234,"date":"2026-07-17T10:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/590234\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T10:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:29:14","slug":"apod-2026-july-17-the-dust-trail-of-comet-tempel-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/590234\/","title":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 July 17 \u2013 The Dust Trail of Comet Tempel 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

APOD: 2026 July 17 \u2013 The Dust Trail of Comet Tempel 2<\/p>\n

Discover the cosmos!<\/a>
\nEach day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.\n<\/p>\n

2026 July 17
\n

\n\"See<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

The Dust Trail of Comet Tempel 2 <\/b>
Image Credit &
\nCopyright<\/a>:<\/b><\/p>\n

Dan Bartlett<\/a><\/p>\n

Explanation: <\/b> <\/p>\n

Comet 10P\/Tempel 2<\/a>
\norbits the Sun once every 5.4 years.<\/p>\n

Currently visible in binoculars or small telescopes toward
\nthe constellation Capricornus, the
\nperiodic<\/a>
\ncomet is captured in this sharp telescopic
\nimage from July 11<\/a>
\nsporting a bright nuclear region and pretty greenish coma.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, a thin dust trail,
\nnot a typical dust tail, is also seen extending both east and west of
\nthe Tempel 2 nucleus.<\/p>\n

Unlike a
\ncomet dust tail<\/a>,
\nwhich tends to temporarily
\nfan out in a direction away from the Sun, this dust trail
\nis due to the residual dust<\/a>
\nshed during
\nmany past<\/a>
\norbits along this ancient periodic comet’s orbital plane.<\/p>\n

In fact, Tempel 2’s dust trail may get a little narrower and brighter
\nfrom our perspective as Earth crosses through the comet’s orbital plane
\non July 20.<\/p>\n

Comet 10P\/Tempel 2<\/a>
\nwill reach a perihelion on August 2, and make
\nits closest approach to Earth on August 3.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow’s picture: <\/b>the antisolar horizon<\/a> <\/p>\n

<<\/a>
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\n Authors & editors: <\/b>
\nRobert Nemiroff<\/a>
\n(MTU<\/a>) &<\/p>\n

Jerry Bonnell (UMCP<\/a>)
NASA Official: <\/b> Amber Straughn
\nSpecific rights apply<\/a>.
NASA Web Privacy<\/a>,
\nAccessibility<\/a>,
\nNotices<\/a>;
A service of:<\/b>
\nASD<\/a> at
\nNASA<\/a> \/
\nGSFC<\/a>,
\n
NASA Science Activation<\/a>
\n
&<\/b> Michigan Tech. U.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 July 17 \u2013 The Dust Trail of Comet Tempel 2 Discover the cosmos! Each day a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[250253,7043,250254,18,19,17,133,451],"class_list":["post-590234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-10p","tag-comet","tag-dust-trail","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116934854503087250","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}