Comet Halley at 28 AU heliocentric distance

Faint, star-like image of Comet Halley (centre), observed with the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory on March 6-8, 2003. 81 individual exposures from three of the four 8.2-m VLT telescopes with a total exposure time of about 9 hours were combined to show the magnitude 28.2 object. At this time, Comet Halley was about 4200 million km from the Sun (28.06 AU) and 4080 million km (27.26 AU) from the Earth. All images of stars and galaxies in the field were removed during the extensive image processing needed to produce this unique image. Due to the remaining, unavoidable "background noise", it is best to view the comet image from some distance. The field measures 60 x 40 arcsec 2 ; North is up and East is left.

Credit:

ESO

About the Image

Id:eso0328a
Type:Observation
Release date:1 September 2003
Related releases:eso0328
Size:1280 x 768 px

About the Object

Name:Comet Halley
Type:Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Comet
Category:Solar System

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Colours & filters

BandTelescope
OpticalVery Large Telescope
FORS1
OpticalVery Large Telescope
VIMOS
OpticalVery Large Telescope
FORS2