Cold Comet Halley
Explanation:
While this may not be the most esthetic image of
Comet Halley
that you have ever seen, it is likely the most unique.
The tiny cluster of pixels circled is the
famous
comet along its orbit over
4 billion (4,000,000,000) kilometers or 28
AU
from the Sun --
a record distance for a comet observation.
Its last passage through
our neck of the woods in 1985,
Comet Halley
presently cruises through the dim reaches of the outer solar
system, almost as far away as outermost gas giant Neptune, and shows no
sign
of activity.
Captured in March, this negative image is a composite of
digital exposures made with three
of ESO's
Very Large Telescopes.
The exposures are registered on the
moving comet, so the
picture shows background stars and galaxies as elongated smudges.
An earth-orbiting satellite appears as a dark streak at the top.
Comet
Halley is clearly extremely faint here, but large earthbound
telescopes will be able to
follow
it as it grows fainter still, reaching
the most distant point in its orbit, more than 5 billion kilometers
(35 AU) from the Sun, in 2023.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
