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TESS Catches a Comet

On a gray background a bright ball of light travels across the image from the right side to the left, at a slight angle upward. There are also other small dots sprinkled throughout the image, which mostly remain stationary throughout.
Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology/NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Published: August 6, 2018

This animated GIF is compiled from a series of images taken on July 25, 2018, by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Visible in the images are the comet C/2018 N1, variable stars, asteroids, and reflected light from Mars.

More information: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13030

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