Comet Lovejoy and the Milky Way, over the Southern Ocean. The comet is near the horizon, below and left of the Milky Way, the band of billions of star

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Comet Lovejoy and the Milky Way, over the Southern Ocean. The comet is near the horizon, below and left of the Milky Way, the band of billions of stars that is our galaxy seen from the inside. Comets are icy bodies from the outer solar system that boil and form a bright tail of gas and dust as they approach the Sun. Comet Lovejoy reached its closest approach to the Sun on 16 December 2011. Photographed on 23 December 2011 from Cape Schanck, on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia.

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Size: 5138px × 3425px
Photo credit: © ALEX CHERNEY, TERRASTRO.COM/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: /2011, 23, 2011, 21st, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, australia, australian, cape, century, christmas, coast, coastal, comet, dawn, december, great, hemisphere, horizon, lovejoy, milky, mornington, night, ocean, peninsula, rising, rocks, rocky, schanck, sea, sky, skyline, southern, starry, stars, victoria, w3