Watch Comet Pan-STARRS Race Around The Sun
Comet Pan-STARRS From L.A., March 12 Wikimedia CommonsHave you seen it at sunset yet? Comet Pan-STARRS is visible in many parts of the U.S. around sunset, and it was at its peak brightness a few days ago when it made its closest pass to the sun. As they approach our star and warm up, dirty cosmic snowballs like Pan-STARRS grow bright tails, or comas, which are made of dust and ice particles that reflect light. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center stitched together some observations from the STEREO observatory, which watches the sun. The comet moved around the star from March 10 through 15 and gradually grew brighter. In the video, Earth is the unmoving bright spot on the right, and the sun's light comes from the left. The swirly vapors on the left are coronal mass ejections. While it looks like one CME goes right past Pan-STARRS, it actually wasn't in the...