Comet Siding Spring

Esahubble_opo1419b_1024

esahubble_opo1419b March 31st, 2014

Credit: NASA, ESA, and J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute)

This is an unprocessed close up image of Comet Siding Spring. Comet Siding Spring is plunging toward the Sun along a roughly 1-million-year orbit. The comet, discovered in 2013, was within the radius of Jupiter's orbit when the Hubble Space Telescope photographed it on March 11, 2014. Hubble resolves two jets of dust coming from the solid icy nucleus. These persistent jets were first seen in Hubble pictures taken on Oct. 29, 2013. The feature should allow astronomers to measure the direction of the nucleus's pole, and hence, rotation axis. The comet will make its closest approach to our Sun on Oct. 25, 2014, at a distance of 130 million miles, well outside Earth's orbit. On its inbound leg, Comet Siding Spring will pass within 84,000 miles of Mars on Oct. 19, 2014, which is less than half the Moon's distance from Earth. The comet is not expected to become bright enough to be seen by the naked eye. Links: NASA Press release Hubble Sees Mars-Bound Comet Sprout Multiple Jets Comet Siding Spring - processed image Comet Siding Spring over time Comet Siding Spring comparison of enhanced and original images

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo1419b/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
C/2013 A1
Subject - Solar System
Interplanetary Body > Comet

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Hubble (WFC3) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Esahubble_opo1419b_1280
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ID
opo1419b
Subject Category
A.2.2  
Subject Name
C/2013 A1
Credits
NASA, ESA, and J.-Y. Li (Planetary Science Institute)
Release Date
2014-03-31T13:57:30
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo1419b/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3
Color Assignment
Band
Optical
Bandpass
V
Central Wavelength
606
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
opo1419b
Metadata Date
2019-10-07T11:40:54.488155
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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