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Credit & Copyright: Olivier Hainaut
(IoA, Hawaii) and
Richard West
(ESO),
3.5-m New Technology Telescope,
European Southern Observatory
Explanation:
This March 19th
false-color picture of
Comet Hyakutake from one of the most
sophisticated ground based telescopes captures the area surrounding the
comet's nucleus.
A comet's nucleus - not directly visible here - is a
solid dirty iceball probably no more than 10 kilometers across. This image
shows, for the first time, features of irregular brightness in the
coma
surrounding the nucleus.
The beginning of the ion tale is
visible as the bright feature emanating from the right, approaching about
1000 km from nucleus. At the distance of the comet,
the whole field captured here is roughly the
size of the Earth. If it's clear,
Comet
Hyakutake may be easily
visible
tonight!
Information:
The
Scale of the Universe Debate in April 1996
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: comet - comet Hyakutake - nucleus
Publications with words: comet - comet Hyakutake - nucleus
See also: