Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DLR/NAU

With the help of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered that what was thought to be a large asteroid called Don Quixote is in fact a comet.

This image represents a more elaborate image processing step, in which the glow of the coma has been removed based on a model comet coma. Bright speckles around Don Quixote are background stars; the horizontal bar covers image artifacts caused by the image processing.

Provider: Spitzer Space Telescope

Image Source: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/5657-sig13-010b-Spitzer-Spies-a-Comet-Coma-and-Tail

Curator: Spitzer Space Telescope, Pasadena, CA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/info/18-Image-Use-Policy