Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ophiuchus (Oph)  ·  Contains:  Solar system body or event
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C/2017 K2 PanSTARRS, Jared Willson
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C/2017 K2 PanSTARRS

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
C/2017 K2 PanSTARRS, Jared Willson
Powered byPixInsight

C/2017 K2 PanSTARRS

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Description

Comet K2 was discovered in May of 2017 by the PanSTARRS observatory on Haleakala in Hawaii. At the time it was found, it was the most distant active comet ever found--it was still outside Saturn's orbit at time of discovery. It will not get particularly close to the Sun, and so is very unlikely to become a naked eye object, but at just under Magnitude 9 in late June 2022 it's a nice telescopic object.

The green color that is common in the coma of many comets come from  diatomic carbon, C2. There is a prominent emission lines in the green portion of the spectrum. The green tends not to continue into the tail of the comet as UV radiation from the Sun breaks down both CN and C2.

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C/2017 K2 PanSTARRS, Jared Willson