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.

Credit:

ESO

Over de afbeelding

Id:eso0119b
Type:Observatie
Publicatiedatum:18 mei 2001
Gerelateerde berichten:eso0119
Grootte:785 x 622 px

Over het object

Naam:C/2001 A2 (LINEAR)
Type:Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Comet : Nucleus
Categorie:Solar System

Afbeeldingstypen

Grote JPEG
78,1 KB

Achtergrond

1024x768
114,7 KB
1280x1024
171,6 KB
1600x1200
228,8 KB
1920x1200
255,7 KB
2048x1536
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Kleuren & filters

BandTelescoop
Optisch
R
Very Large Telescope

Exposure time: 60s