Comet Pan-STARRS is now heading away from our solar system Images of Comet Pan-STARRS streaking across the skies of North America and Europe on Tuesday have been captured by a time-lapse video camera. The video captures the white comet gently soaring alongside the moon at a similarly leisurely pace as they both drop into the horizon over Atlanta, Georgia.
Comet C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS, already visible for weeks from the Southern Hemisphere, appeared to observers above the equator for the first time this week.
The newly released video is coupled with other amazing images showing the comet blazing a trail above Southern California and Las Vegas, and as far away as Australia as it continued its long trek north as seen from Earth.
On Tuesday, various websites published pictures of the comet blazing a trail through the skies over Las Vegas and southern California and, in coming weeks, observers at ever higher latitudes will have a chance to see it.
Once a mere 93million miles away, it is now heading away from our solar system and is not expected to return for another 100,000 years.
However, it will be visible in the northern hemisphere for the next few weeks, just after sunset in the west.
PanSTARRS' name is an acronym for the Hawaiian telescope used to spot it two years ago - the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System.
The volcano-top telescope is on constant prowl for dangerous asteroids and comets that might be headed our way. - and in recent months there have been several.
Like other comets of its type, PanSTARRS is thought to have originated in the Oort Cloud, a vast region containing millions of comets located more than two light years from the Sun.
PanSTARRS travelled in towards the inner Solar system for millions of years, dormant for most of this time as a small nucleus made up of rock and ice.
When comets approach the Sun, these ices heat up, eventually turning to gases that jet out into space together with dusty material to form a head or coma around the cometary nucleus.
Particles from the Sun (the so-called solar wind) blow the gases back in a straight tail, whilst sunlight exerts a pressure on the dust particles to create a curved tail.
Later this year, in November and December, Comet ISON is expected to be one of the brightest comets ever seen and experts believe it will be brighter than the moon in the night sky.
And next year astronomers are anticipating potential cosmic fireworks after they identified a comet hurtling into our solar system that could hit Mars with potentially catastrophic force.