Comet P/1997 T3

Deep NTT image of P/1997 T3. This image covers a field of 105 x 60 arcsec and is a composite of several CCD exposures. It was taken with the ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT) and the EMMI multi-mode instrument by ESO astronomers Hermann Boehnhardt and Olivier Hainaut on different days between 21 and 25 October 1997. By computer processing, the images of P/1997 T3 are aligned to the same pixel position and co-added in order to increase the visibility of the comet. Due to the motion of the comet, multiple images of several galaxies and stars appear in this photo. At the time of the observations, the comet was about 3.34 AU from Earth and about 4.30 AU from the Sun.