Tails from the Ocean

As seen on the National Geographic News the stunning tail of Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) is photographed in the early morning sky above Cape Schanck, about 90 km from Melbourne, southeastern Australia. The small icy body not only survived its close perihelion (only 185,000 km from the Sun’s surface), but in the days afterward this sungrazer comet also held together and reformed its tails. The band of the Milky Way is captured with the constellations Ara, Centaurus, Crux (the Southern Cross near the top), and Carina. Note the two bright stars of Alpha and Beta Centauri in the upper middle and the prominent dark cloud of Coalsack nebula above them near the Southern Cross (at the top). © Alex Cherney