This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the ancient Comet 332P/Ikeya-Murakami disintegrating as it approaches the sun. The observations represent one of the sharpest views of an icy comet breaking apart.
The comet debris consists of a cluster of building-size chunks near the center of the image. They form a 3,000-mile-long trail, larger than the width of the continental U.S. The fragments are drifting away from the comet, dubbed Comet 332P, at a leisurely pace, roughly the walking speed of an adult.
The main nucleus of Comet 332P is the bright object at lower left. It measures 1,600 feet across, about the length of five football fields.
Hubble spied the debris on Jan. 26, 27, and 28, 2016, when the comet was 150 million miles from the sun, slightly beyond the orbit of Mars. The 4.5-billion-year-old comet, which originated from the Kuiper Belt, probably shed the debris over a short period of time, from October to December 2015.
The comet shards brighten and dim as icy patches on their surfaces rotate into and out of sunlight. The icy relics, totaling about 25 pieces, comprise about 4 percent of the comet and range in size from roughly 65 feet wide to 200 feet wide.
The tiny white dot just above the comet may be another fragment, signaling the beginning of another outburst. These observations provide insight into the volatile behavior of comets as they approach the sun and begin to vaporize, unleashing dynamical forces.
This image was taken on Jan. 27, 2016, with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Comet 332P/Ikeya-Murakami |
| Object Description | Short-period comet |
| Distance | The position of the comet changes as it and Earth travel on their orbits through the solar system. The comet was approximately 0.68 AU (67 million miles or 100 million kilometers) from Earth at the time of these observations. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Data were provided through HST proposal : D. Jewitt (UCLA), M. Mutchler (STScI), H. Weaver (JHU/APL), J. Agarwal (MPI), M.-T. Hui (UCLA), M. Ishiguro (Seoul National Univ.), J. Li (UCLA), and J. Kleyna, K. Meech, R. Wainscoat, and R. Weryk (Univ. Hawaii). |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | January 26, 27, 28, 2016; Exposure Time: 100 minutes total exposure |
| Filters | F350LP 350nm (long pass) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | Several images of Comet 332P were made by HST's WFC3/UVIS instrument on three consecutive days with a single filter, F350LP. The exposures from each day were combined into a single image. Color was added to the combined grayscale images using a color mapping. |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
