                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2026 April 12
   A starry night is seen above foreground mountains. Toward the right is
   a comet with its head near the bottom center and a long tail extending
    toward the upper right. Please see the explanation for more detailed
                                information.

                       Comet R3 (PanSTARRS) Brightens
                  Image Credit & Copyright: José Rodrigues

   Explanation: Comet R3 is brightening rapidly -- will it survive? C/2025
   R3 (PanSTARRS) has been slowly brightening and extending an ion tail
   since its discovery last year. This shedding mountain of dirty ice puts
   on its best sky show this month, though, because it passes its closest
   to both the Sun (April 19) and the Earth (April 25). The featured
   image, showing R3 already sporting a tail extending over 10 degrees,
   was taken two nights ago from Sion, Switzerland with the big mountain
   Bietschhorn on the left. Comet R3 will be visible during mid-April
   before sunrise. Although the future brightness of any comet is hard to
   predict, the brightness of R3 makes it already a good camera comet and
   it may become visible to the unaided eye in the next week. Comet R3's
   physical future is also unknown because, like Comet A1 (MAPS) earlier
   this month, it may disintegrate when it passes its closest to the Sun.
   Or it may live to leave the Solar System.

                      Growing Gallery: Comet R3 in 2026
                      Tomorrow's picture: oyster stars
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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