[ad_1]
Images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of Comet NEOWISE, taken on August 8, focus on the visitor’s coma, the gossamer shell of gas and dust that surrounds its core as it is heated by the sun. This is the first time that Hubble has photographed a comet of this luminosity at such a resolution after this closure of a passage through the Sun.
The photos of the comet were taken after NEOWISE flew closest to the Sun on July 3, 2020, at a distance of 27 million miles (43 million kilometers). Other comets often split apart due to thermal and gravitational stresses during such close encounters, but the view from Hubble shows that apparently the solid core of NEOWISE has remained intact.
“Hubble has a much better resolution than what we can get with any other telescope on this comet,” said lead researcher Qicheng Zhang of Caltech in Pasadena, California. “This resolution is very important for seeing details very close to the nucleus. It allows us to see the changes in the dust right after it has been removed from that nucleus due to solar heat, by sampling the dust as close as possible of the original properties of the comet. “
The heart of the comet, its icy core, is too small to be seen by Hubble. The ice ball should be no more than 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) in diameter. Instead, the Hubble image captures part of the vast cloud of gas and dust enveloping the core, which is about 18,000 kilometers in diameter in this photo. Hubble solves a pair of nucleus jets that exit in opposite directions. They emerge from the nucleus as cones of dust and gas, and then are curved into larger fan structures by the rotation of the nucleus. The jets are the result of the sublimation of ice below the surface, with the resulting dust / gas being expelled at high speed.
Hubble photos can help reveal the color of comet dust and how those colors change as the comet moves away from the Sun. This, in turn, may explain how solar heat affects the composition and structure of this dust in a comet coma. The ultimate goal here would be to learn the original properties of dust to learn more about the conditions of the early solar system in which it formed.
Comet NEOWISE is considered the brightest comet visible in the northern hemisphere since 1997 Hale-Bopp. It is heading beyond the outer solar system, now traveling 144,000 miles per hour. It will not return to the Sun for almost 7,000 years.
Researchers are now digging deeper into the data to see what they can confirm.
NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission first discovered its namesake comet in March 2020. As the comet approached the Sun, the scorching heat melted its ice, releasing dust and gas that leave signature tails. Throughout the summer, ground sky watchers in the northern hemisphere were able to spot the traveler moving across the sky.
The Hubble Space Telescope is an international cooperation project between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland operates the telescope. Baltimore’s Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Astronomical Research in Washington, DC
Source of the story:
Material provided by NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.
[ad_2]
Source link