Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas is now headed back to the outer Solar System . The massive dusty snowball put on quite a show during its trip near the Sun, resulting in many impressive pictures from planet Earth during October. The featured image was taken in mid-October and shows a defining visual feature of the comet -- its impressive anti-tail . The image captures Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) with impressively long dust and ion tails pointing up and away from the Sun, while the strong anti-tail -- composed of more massive dust particles -- trails the comet and points down and (nearly) toward the recently-set Sun . In the foreground is village of Tai di Cadore , Italy , with the tremendous Dolomite Mountains in the background. Another comet, C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) , once a candidate to rival Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas in brightness, broke up last week during its close approach to our Sun. from NASA https://ift.tt/13NHXbk
Why were the statues on Easter Island built? No one is sure. What is sure is that over 900 large stone statues called moai s exist there. The Rapa Nui (Easter Island) moais stand, on average, over twice as tall as a person and have over 200 times as much mass. It is thought that the unusual statues were created about 600 years ago in the images of local leaders of a vibrant and ancient civilization. Rapa Nui has been declared by UNESCO to a World Heritage Site . Pictured here , some of the stone giants were imaged last month under the central band of our Milky Way galaxy. Previously unknown moais are still being discovered . from NASA https://ift.tt/tArW1pP