Comet 73P-B
I was just about to write about the new image of comet 73P-B from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) when I spotted that Ian has written about it already.
In case you didn't know, the comet is in the process of breaking up, but without the need for a washing machine-sized chunk of NASA spacecraft. The new VLT image was created from a series of exposures, using three different coloured filters, and shows the state of the B fragment as it was a couple of days ago. An interesting side effect is that the background star in the image is thus turned into a string of coloured blobs rather than a normal star trail. The ESO press release has all the details.
Mini-Comets coming off Comet SW-3 CREDIT: FORS/VLT/ESO
Posted in astro blog by Stuart on Wednesday 26th Apr 2006 (00:16 UTC) | Permalink
