This negative photo shows the faint image of periodic comet Halley (in the circle) at the record heliocentric distance 18.82 AU (= 2,820 million km, about the distance of Uranus). ... They were cleaned to remove various sky and instrumental noise, shifted according to the predicted motion of the comet and then co-added. ... The position in the sky is less than 1 arcsec from that predicted on the basis of the comet's very well-determined orbit. ... Total exposure time: 13,500 seconds. ...

... 2005 June 29 . Thirteen Million Kilometers from Comet Tempel 1 . ... JPL-Caltech , NASA . ... During the next 24 hours, both Flyby and Impactor will fire rockets and undergo complex maneuvers in preparation for Impactor's planned collision with Comet Tempel 1 . ... The above image was taken on 19 June from about 13 million kilometers out and used to help identify the central nucleus of the comet inside the diffuse coma . ... About APOD | ... NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers . ...

... Thirteen Million Kilometers from Comet Tempel 1 . ... Early on July 3 (EDT), the Deep Impact spacecraft will separate in to two individual robotic spaceships, one called Flyby and the other called Impactor. ... The above image was taken on 19 June from about 13 million kilometers out and used to help identify the central nucleus of the comet inside the diffuse coma . ... The result may give crucial information about the structure of comets and the early history of our Solar System . ... June . ...

... The awsome spectacle of a brilliant comet, with its long ghostly tail streaming behind it, is a rare event. ... Only one other comet, Comet Halley, was seen so far from the Sun, giving scientists an opportunity to watch it as it slowly warmed up and sprouted a tail. ... Comets are the Rip Van Winkles of the solar system -- mini-worlds that have changed little during their 4.5-billion-year nap far from the Sun. ... Observing Comets . ... Once, comets inhabited the entire solar system. ...

U nlike the other small bodies in the solar system, comets have been known since antiquity. There are Chinese records of Comet Halley going back to at least 240 BC. ... W hen they are near the Sun and active, comets have several distinct parts: . ... A comet whose orbit takes it near the Sun is also likely to either impact one of the planets or the Sun or to be ejected out of the solar system by a close encounter (esp. with Jupiter). ... more comet images . ... Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) . ...

... NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected a long-sought population of comets dwelling at the icy fringe of the solar system . The observation, which is the astronomical equivalent to finding the proverbial needle-in-a-haystack, bolsters proof for a primordial comet reservoir just beyond Neptune , currently the farthest planet from the Sun . ... The comet-disk lies just beyond Neptune and might stretch 500 times farther from the Sun than Earth . ... Comet Introduction Kuiper Belt Objects . ...

... Each year a few long-period comets, with orbital periods typically a million years, arrive in the planetary system. ... There should be about 5,000 such objects over 10km across, and perhaps 50,000 over a kilometre across. ... However Bill Napier, and Chandra and Janaki Wickramasinghe at Cardiff University, have shown that this explanation doesn't work: the dust so created would yield many strong annual meteor streams without parent comets, and these are not observed. ...

Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Earth Satellites . ... Sadly C/ 2014 Q2 will probably not be as spectacular a sight as Comet C/ 2011 W3 (Lovejoy), visible near Earth?s horizon in this nighttime image from the International Space Station on 22 December 2011. ... The comet made its closest approach to Earth on 7€а January 2015, at a distance of 72 million km (45 million miles).€а In January the comet will race though the constellations Eridanus, Taurus, Aries and Triangulum. ...

. [ Go back to Comet WWW site ] . Andrew A. Martis . martis @ sai.msu.ru .