Contact: Lars Lindberg Christensen
lars@eso.org
49-893-200-6306
ESA/Hubble Information Centre

Hubble and Wide-Field Ground Based View of Comet 17P/Holmes

Caption: The Hubble image at right, taken on Nov. 4, shows the heart of Comet 17P/Holmes. The central portion of the image has been specially processed to highlight variations in the dust distribution near the nucleus. About twice as much dust lies along the east-west direction (the horizontal direction) as along the north-south direction (the vertical direction), giving the comet a "bow tie" appearance. The composite color image at left, taken Nov. 1 by an amateur astronomer shows the complex structure of the entire coma, consisting of concentric shells of dust and a faint tail emanating from the comet's right side.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and H. Weaver (The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory)

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