The innermost coma of comet Hyakutake
The image is a false-colour image reproduction from a short-exposure CCD frame, obtained with the Danish 1.54-metre telescope and the DFOSC instrument with a 2052 x 2052 pix Loral/Lesser CCD. They show the innermost coma of Comet Hyakutake and the pronounced asymmetry of the dust distribution around the nucleus. This photo displays an area of approx. 9.2 x 6.7 arcmin. The typical elongation in the anti-solar direction (at p.a. = 290 deg, i.e. West-North-West) is very pronounced. The asymmetry in the upper-right quadrant (North-West) is also obvious. When moving outwards from the nucleus (located within the black area), the isophotes (curves of equal brightness; particularly well shown by the contrasting colours on these photos) turn anti-clockwise over an angle of about 20 degrees. This effect is caused by the repulsive action on the dust grains by the solar photons.
Crédito:ESO
Sobre la imagen
Identificador: | eso9615a |
Tipo: | Observación |
Fecha de publicación: | 2 de Marzo de 1996 |
Noticias relacionadas: | eso9615 |
Tamaño: | 358 x 260 px |
Sobre el objeto
Nombre: | Comet Hyakutake |
Tipo: | Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Comet |
Categoría: | Solar System |