Contact: Lars Lindberg Christensen
lars@eso.org
49-173-387-2621
ESA/Hubble Information Centre

Spectacular view of ongoing comet breakup

Caption: Hubble Space Telescope is providing astronomers with extraordinary views of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. The fragile comet is rapidly disintegrating as it approaches the Sun. Hubble images have uncovered many more fragments than have been reported by ground-based observers. These observations provide an unprecedented opportunity to study the demise of a comet nucleus. The comet is currently a chain of over 33 separate fragments, named alphabetically, stretching across the sky by several times the angular diameter of the Moon. Hubble caught fragment B during three days shortly after large outbursts in activity (from top to bottom: 18 April, 19 April and 20 April). Hubble shows several dozen

Credit: Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (APL/JHU), M. Mutchler and Z. Levay (STScI)

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