Credit: ESO

The image is a false-colour image reproduction from a short-exposure CCD frame, obtained with the Danish 1.54-metre telescope and the DFOSC instrument with a 2052 x 2052 pix Loral/Lesser CCD. They show the innermost coma of Comet Hyakutake and the pronounced asymmetry of the dust distribution around the nucleus. This photo is a close-up of the innermost coma. The field measures about 45 x 45 arcsec (27,500 x 27,500 kilometres projected) and although the isophotes appear more round than on the other photo, their asymmetry is also evident on this scale. This is particularly obvious at the edges of the field.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso9615b/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License