This animation shows the rotation of comet C / 2020 F3 (NEOWISE) shortly after its passage through the sun. The two images were taken three hours apart on August 8, 2020 by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Two jets coming from the core of the comet are fanned by the rotation of the comet. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, and Q. Zhang (Caltech)
NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of comet NEOWISE, taken on August 8, zero in on the visitor’s coma, the gossamer shell of gas and dust surrounding its core as it is heated by the sun. This is the first time Hubble has photographed a comet of this brightness at such a resolution after this conclusion of a pass through the sun.
The comet photos were taken after NEOWISE shone closest to the sun on July 3, 2020, at a distance of 43 million kilometers (43 million kilometers). Other comets often break apart due to thermal and gravity stresses at such close-up meetings, but Hubble’s view shows that apparently NEOWISE’s solid core remained intact.
This ground-based image of comet C / 2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was taken from the Northern Hemisphere on July 16, 2020. The inserted image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on August 8, 2020, reveals a close-up of the comet after his pass through the Sun. The image of Hubble zeroes in on the core of the comet, which is too small to see. It is estimated that it is no more than 4.8 kilometers over another measure. Instead, the image shows part of the comet’s coma, the fuzzy glow, which is about 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) in this image. Comet NEOWISE will not pass through the inner solar system for nearly 7,000 years. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Q. Zhang (Caltech); ground image copyright © 2020 by Zoltan G. Levay, used with permission
“Hubble has much better resolution than we can get with any other telescope of this comet,” said lead researcher Qicheng Zhang of Caltech in Pasadena, California. “That resolution is very important for seeing details very close to the core. It shows us changes in the dust immediately after it is stripped from that nucleus due to solar heat, and dust so stalls as close to the original properties of the comet as possible. “
The heart of the comet, its icy core, is too small to see through Hubble. The ice ball cannot exceed 4.8 kilometers (3 miles). Instead, the Hubble image captures part of the large cloud of gas and dust around its core, which is about 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) in this photo. Hubble solves a few jets from the core that shoot out in opposite directions. They come from the core as cones of dust and gas, and are then curved into wider fan-like structures by the rotation of the core. Jets are the result of ice that sublimates beneath the surface, expressing the dust / gas at high speed.
This image of comet C / 2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was created by the Hubble Space Telescope on August 8, 2020. Hubble’s image represents the first time a comet of this brightness was photographed at such a resolution after this closure of a pass by the sun. The two structures that appear on the left and right sides of the center of the comet are jets that consist of ice that sublimes from below the surface of the core, pushing through the resulting dust and gas. become at a high speed. The jets appear as cone-like structures, then are fanned out by the rotation of comet NEOWISE’s core. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Pagan (STScI), and Q. Zhang (Caltech)
The Hubble photos can help to discover the color of the comet’s dust and how those colors change as the comet moves away from the Sun. This in turn can explain how the sun’s heat composition and structure of that substance in the coma’s coma. The ultimate goal here would be to learn the original properties of the substance to learn more about the conditions of the early solar system in which it formed.
Comet NEOWISE is considered to be the brightest comet visible from the Northern Hemisphere since Hale-Bopp of 1997. It goes to the outer solar system and now travels at a full 144,000 miles per hour. It will not return to the Sun for more than 7,000 years.
Researchers are currently delving deeper into the data to see what they can confirm.
NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission first discovered its namesake comet in March 2020. As the comet made its way closer to the sun, heat of heat threw its iron, free of dust and gas. that leaves the signature stars behind. . All summer long, celestial lights on ground in the Northern Hemisphere could get a view of the traveler moving across the sky.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, controls the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts scientific operations of Hubble. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, DC
