The innermost coma of comet Hyakutake

Eso_eso9615a_1024

eso_eso9615a March 2nd, 1996

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 displays an area of approx. 9.2 x 6.7 arcmin. The typical elongation in the anti-solar direction (at p.a. = 290 deg, i.e. West-North-West) is very pronounced. The asymmetry in the upper-right quadrant (North-West) is also obvious. When moving outwards from the nucleus (located within the black area), the isophotes (curves of equal brightness; particularly well shown by the contrasting colours on these photos) turn anti-clockwise over an angle of about 20 degrees. This effect is caused by the repulsive action on the dust grains by the solar photons.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso9615a/

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
Comet Hyakutake
Subject - Solar System
Interplanetary Body > Comet

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Pseudocolor ESO-Danish-1.54m (DFOSC) Optical (R) -
Eso_eso9615a_1280
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ID
eso9615a
Subject Category
A.2.2  
Subject Name
Comet Hyakutake
Credits
ESO
Release Date
1996-03-02T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso9615a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
N/A
Facility
Danish 1.54-metre telescope
Instrument
DFOSC
Color Assignment
Pseudocolor
Band
Optical
Bandpass
R
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
60
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
358.0, 260.0
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
eso9615a
Metadata Date
2023-10-11T09:27:19.584606
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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