Comet Lulin C2007 N3

Comet Lulin C/2007 N3 was jointly discovered by Asian astronomers in July of 2007. Quanzhi Ye from China first saw the comet on images obtained by Chi-Sheng Lin from Taiwan, at the Lu-lin Observatory.

It will pass the closest to earth (0.41 AU) on Feb 24, 2009. The green atmosphere (coma) is roughly three times the size of the planet Jupiter. It boasts a large dust tail pointing away from the sun, and a similarly bright ion tail pointing tward the sun.

This image was taken from Homer Alaska on Feb 21, 2009