NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its 17th close approach to the Sun yesterday Sept. 27, 2023 at 7:28 p.m. EDT. At perihelion, it was at a record distance of 7.26 million km from the solar surface, racing by at a record speed of 635,266 km/h.
The spacecraft will transmit science data from the encounter back to Earth from Oct 4 to Oct 19.
For comparison, the perihelion of planet Mercury is at 45.3 mil km.
Tangentially related to this CME event caught by PSP is this fascinating video of comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) taken by the STEREO-A solar observatory during Sep 17-24, 2023.
The movie shows the comet's ion tail interacting with the solar wind. There was a glancing blow from a coronal mass ejection (CME) during the Sept 22-23 timeframe!
Some beautiful images of comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) are getting posted online by amateur and professional astro-photographers, as the comet nears its closest approach to earth on Sep 12.
Let's take a look at a few.
This first one, posted on apod, was taken in eastern Slovakia by Petr Horálek / Institute of Physics in Opava.
The light curve below shows that comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) is brightening up nicely. Current apparent magnitude is below 4 (lower is brighter).
In theory, objects with mag 6 and lower are visible to the naked eye, but currently the comet is low on the horizon during the early morning hours, so visibility depends on local conditions. Binoculars help.
After Sep 17, it will be too close to setting sun as seen from the northern hemisphere.
Here is another outstanding image of comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura), this one taken by Sławomir Matz.
His post reads - "C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) photographed on September 7, 2023. The comet is currently popular in the media and can be visible to the naked eye. I wrote about her on Facebook! Look for the peja "Stars in the hands."