The innermost coma of comet Hyakutake

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.

Bildnachweis:

ESO

Über das Bild

ID:eso9615a
Typ:Beobachtung
Veröffentlichungsdatum:2. März 1996
Dazugehörige Veröffentlichungen:eso9615
Größe:358 x 260 px

Über das Objekt

Name:Comet Hyakutake
Typ:Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Comet
Kategorie:Solar System

Bildformate

Großes JPEG
142,6 KB

Bildschirm-Hintergrundbilder

1024x768
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2048x1536
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Farben & Filter

SpektralbereichTeleskop
Optisch
R
Danish 1.54-metre telescope
DFOSC

Exposure time: 60s