APOD: 2026 May 8 – Comet R3 PanSTARRS Before Rigel
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Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2026 May 8
Comet R3 PanSTARRS Before Rigel
Image Credit & Copyright:
Jakub Kuřák &
Martin Mašek
(FZU of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
Explanation:
Which way is
Comet R3 PanSTARRS going?
Not towards the star at the top of the image, because that is
Rigel, which, being far in the background,
is
unrelated to the comet.
Not through the nebula in the image middle, because that is the
Witch Head Nebula
and it, too, is far in the distance — but
not far from Rigel.
Not into northern skies because over the past week Comet
C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) has moved into
southern skies and is now best visible in
Earth‘s
Southern Hemisphere toward the west after sunset.
Angularly,
Comet R3 PanSTARRS
is slowly moving toward the upper right, night by night,
and will soon be in the constellation Orion.
Spatially, the comet is now headed out of our
Solar System but should remain
visible to cameras
in southern skies for about a week.
The
featured image was captured last week near
Cerro Paranal in
Chile.
Growing Gallery:
Comet R3 PanSTARRS in 2026
Tomorrow’s picture: stereo Moon
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn
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