Comet Ikeya-Zhang's Busy Tail

One of the brightest comets of the past five years will likely reach its peak brightness this week. Comet Ikeya-Zhang , officially known as C/2002 C1, can now be seen without aide from a dark location above the western horizon shortly after sunset. Recent luminosity estimates for Comet Ikeya-Zhang place it between magnitudes three and four, making it brighter than most commonly visible stars. The above picture was taken on March 11 near Tucson, Arizona , USA . The image caught Comet Ikeya-Zhang showing a quite detailed ion tail , possibly disrupted by the magnetic field of the Sun 's outwardly flowing particle wind . As the activity of comets is notoriously hard to predict, Comet Ikeya-Zhang may still hold some surprises as it rounds the Sun this month and starts back out of the Solar System in April.