Comet C/2026 S1 (Euclid) (IMAGE)
Caption
A composite of eight Euclid VIS exposures of Comet C/2026 S1 (Euclid).
It was observed by the spacecraft between 16 and 24 September 2026, during the Euclid Deep Field North survey. To create this ‘clean’ image, eight 89.5 second exposures were aligned on the moving comet and combined. Contaminated regions were masked, and background objects were removed, leaving only the comet and its fuzzy cloud of dust and gas (known as a ‘coma’ in cometary terms) visible.
The shorter exposure time of these images (compared with the other images in this release) means that the comet travelled a shorter distance during the exposure, so it appears less like a streak.
Comet C/2026 S1 (Euclid) is the first previously unknown comet to be discovered by ESA’s Euclid space telescope.
Credit
ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, M. Pöntinen et al. 2026
Usage Restrictions
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License
CC BY-SA