The break-up of comet LINEAR

Eso_eso0119b_1024

eso_eso0119b May 18th, 2001

Credit: ESO

This photograph shows the three nuclei of Comet LINEAR (C/2001 A2), but in a false-colour rendering for more clarity. The cometary fragment "B" (right) has split into "B1" and "B2" (separation about 1 arcsec, or 500 km) while fragment "A" (upper left) is considerably fainter. Technical information: this image is based on a 1-min exposure on May 16, 2001 at 23:10 hrs UT through an R-filtre with the VLT Test Camera at the Cassegrain focus (under the main mirror) of the 8.2-m VLT YEPUN (UT4) telescope on Paranal. Although the comet was low in the western sky, the atmospheric conditions were good and the seeing was excellent, 0.6 arcsec. The telescope was set to follow the motion of the comet in the sky. The fields shown measure 17 x 18 arcsec 2 and 27 x 21 arcsec 2, respectively; 1 pixel = 0.0455 arcsec. North is up and East is left.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0119b/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, 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/2001 A2 (LINEAR)
Subject - Solar System
Interplanetary Body > Comet > Nucleus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Pseudocolor VLT (None) Optical (R) -
Eso_eso0119b_1280
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ID
eso0119b
Subject Category
A.2.2.1  
Subject Name
C/2001 A2 (LINEAR)
Credits
ESO
Release Date
2001-05-18T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0119b/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
N/A
Facility
Very Large Telescope
Instrument
None
Color Assignment
Pseudocolor
Band
Optical
Bandpass
R
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
60
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
785.0, 622.0
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.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
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso0119b
Metadata Date
2009-01-20T10:53:25+01:00
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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