Impressive images of the collapse of the comet Atlas taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

Impressive images of the collapse of the comet Atlas taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

_{University of Maryland}

The Hubble Space Telescope made stunning images of more than two dozen fragments of the ruined Atlas Comet nucleus.

The space telescope identified approximately 30 core fragments on April 20, and three days later 25 – read the website of the United States Space Agency (NASA).

David Jewitt, who works at the Los Angeles affiliate of the University of California, who is the leader of one of the two research teams that made the dying comet appear, said the situation and appearance of the observed fragments were significantly different on the two days.

“I don’t know if it’s because each piece is shiny or not, depending on whether it reflects sunlight, it behaves like Christmas tree burners or because the two days are different fragments.” they are visible, “said the expert.

“It is extremely exciting, in part because seeing such a phenomenon is a great experience, and in part because it does not happen very often. Most crumbling comets are too faint to see. An event of this magnitude occurs one or two times per decade, “said Quanzhi Ye, who is a specialist at the University of Maryland and leader of another research group working with space telescopes.

According to the researchers, the results show that fragmentation of comets is a relatively common phenomenon. This may be the primary mechanism by which compact, icy seeds of comets die.

However, as the process progresses rapidly and unpredictably, astronomers are unsure of the cause of the fragmentation, but the recordings now released may help to better understand the phenomenon.

The brightness of the Atlas, discovered last December, increased rapidly until mid-March, and some astronomers believed that it would be visible to the naked eye in May, making it one of the most spectacular comets in the past 20 years.

However, the celestial body suddenly began to fade and astronomers concluded that the nucleus of the comet began to break or break. The fragmentation was also confirmed by recordings in mid-April.

The comet collapsed approximately 146 million miles from Earth when it was captured by Hubble. If any of it remains, the comet will be the closest to our planet on May 23, 116 million km away.