Astronomy Picture of the Day . ... 3.03.2012 . ... Streaming away from the sunward direction, a familiar bluish ion tail sweeps to the left. ... Other comet imagers have recently captured changing structures in Garradd's ion tail created as the plasma is buffeted by the magnetic fields in the solar wind. Now moving more quickly through northern skies, on March 5th comet Garradd will reach its closest approach to planet Earth, about 10.5 light-minutes distant. ... March . ... March 2012 . ...