The near-nucleus environment in comet Hyakutake

This photo is a reproduction of a 5-second R-filtre CCD exposure obtained by Chris Lidman (ESO) and Olivier Le Fevre (Observatoire de Meudon, France) on UT March 15.3, 1996, with the EMMI Multimode Instrument on the ESO 3.5-m New Technology Telescope (NTT). It has been image-processed by Stefano Benetti at ESO-Santiago and Olivier Hainaut at the ESO HQ in Garching. This image displays the asymmetric components of the coma structure near the cometary nucleus. It shows a major dust jet emerging from the nucleus at 1 arcsec distance (250 km projected) in the North-East quadrant and turning counterclockwise a few arcsec (about 1000 km projected) further out. This is the first image to show evidence of such a well delimited jet this close to the nucleus.

Credit:

ESO

About the Image

Id:eso9622a
Type:Observation
Release date:17 March 1996
Related releases:eso9622
Size:396 x 395 px

About the Object

Name:Comet Hyakutake
Type:Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Comet
Category:Solar System

Image Formats

Large JPEG
30.9 KB
Screensize JPEG
63.1 KB

Wallpapers

1024x768
64.2 KB
1280x1024
85.5 KB
1600x1200
103.1 KB
1920x1200
109.0 KB
2048x1536
137.3 KB

Colours & filters

BandTelescope
Optical
R
New Technology Telescope
EMMI

Exposure time: 5s