The break-up of comet LINEAR

This photograph shows the three nuclei of Comet LINEAR (C/2001 A2), but in a false-colour rendering for more clarity. The cometary fragment "B" (right) has split into "B1" and "B2" (separation about 1 arcsec, or 500 km) while fragment "A" (upper left) is considerably fainter.

Technical information: this image is based on a 1-min exposure on May 16, 2001 at 23:10 hrs UT through an R-filtre with the VLT Test Camera at the Cassegrain focus (under the main mirror) of the 8.2-m VLT YEPUN (UT4) telescope on Paranal. Although the comet was low in the western sky, the atmospheric conditions were good and the seeing was excellent, 0.6 arcsec. The telescope was set to follow the motion of the comet in the sky. The fields shown measure 17 x 18 arcsec 2 and 27 x 21 arcsec 2, respectively; 1 pixel = 0.0455 arcsec. North is up and East is left.

Kilde:

ESO

Om billedet

Id:eso0119b
Type:Observation
Udgivelsesdato:18. maj 2001
Relaterede pressemeddelelser:eso0119
Størrelse:785 x 622 px

Om objektet

Navn:C/2001 A2 (LINEAR)
Type:Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Comet : Nucleus
Kategori:Solar System

Billedformater

Stor JPEG
78,1 KB
Skrærm JPEG
76,9 KB

Baggrundsbilleder

1024x768
114,7 KB
1280x1024
171,6 KB
1600x1200
228,8 KB
1920x1200
255,7 KB
2048x1536
322,4 KB

Farver & filtre

BåndTeleskop
Optisk
R
Very Large Telescope

Exposure time: 60s