Break-up of Comet Linear

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A computer-processed composite of three CCD exposures of the head of Comet LINEAR, obtained with VLT ANTU and the multi-mode FORS-1 instrument through a R(ed) optical filter on August 6, 2000. The telescope followed the comet's fast motion perfectly during the duration of the exposures (9, 10 and 8 min, respectively) and the images of the stars in the field appear as long trails. More than a dozen "mini-comets" are seen — they are pieces from the comet's disintegrating nucleus. Image processing by Richard Hook (ST/ECF, Garching) suppressed the bright part of the comet's tail in order to provide a clearer view of the faint condensations (by means of a median combination of registered, unsharp masked versions of the three images). The observing conditions were good; the image quality is about 0.6 arcsec. The field shown measures about 3.4 x 2.5 arcmin 2. North is up and East is left.

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