The inner coma of comet Hyakutake

The most recent ESO observations of bright Comet Hyakutake have shown rapid changes in the innermost coma, within a few hundred kilometres from the cometary nucleus. This result has only become possible because of the unusual combination of a bright comet being near the Earth, together with the excellent imaging quality of the ESO 3.5-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT).

For the further analysis, a comparison (with the image eso9623a) was made of a series of 12 R-frames each, obtained with a 30-min interval.

The field shown in this image is 60 x 60 arcsec, i.e. about 10,000 km square at the distance of the comet. The image taken on 19 March 1996.