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This Astronomy Picture of the Day features a time-lapse video captured on July 8, 2020, showing Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) rising over the Adriatic Sea in Italy. The video combines over 240 images taken over 30 minutes, displaying the comet rising through noctilucent clouds against a starfield background. Comet NEOWISE, known as the Great Comet of 2020, remained visible to the unaided eye for over a month and possessed a nucleus approximately five kilometers in diameter with prominent ion and dust tails.
Why it matters
This documentation captured one of the few comets visible to the naked eye in the 21st century, providing valuable observational data and public engagement with a rare astronomical phenomenon. The imagery contributes to scientific understanding of comet composition and behavior while demonstrating the accessibility of significant celestial events to amateur astronomers and the general public.
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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.
Comet NEOWISE Rising Over the Adriatic Sea
Explanation: This sight was worth getting out of bed early. Just over four years ago, Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) rose before dawn to the delight of northern sky enthusiasts awake that early. Up before sunrise on July 8th, the featured photographer was able to capture in dramatic fashion one of the few comets visible to the unaided eye this century, an inner-Solar System intruder that has become known as the Great Comet of 2020. The resulting video detailed Comet NEOWISE from Italy rising over the Adriatic Sea. The featured time-lapse video combines over 240 images taken over 30 minutes. The comet was seen rising through a foreground of bright and undulating noctilucent clouds, and before a background of distant stars. Comet NEOWISE remained unexpectedly bright for over a month, with its ion and dust tails found to emanate from a nucleus spanning about five kilometers across.
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| Date | September 13, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Credit & Copyright | Paolo Girotti |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, Keighley Rockcliffe |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |
Source: APOD: 2026 September 13 – Comet NEOWISE Rising over the Adriatic Sea