Hubble Provides Spectacular Detail of a Comet's Breakup (Schwassmann-Wachmann 3)

FOR RELEASE: 1:00 pm (EDT) April 27, 2006

PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC06-18

HUBBLE PROVIDES SPECTACULAR DETAIL OF A COMET'S BREAKUP

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is providing astronomers with
extraordinary views of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. The fragile
comet is rapidly disintegrating as it approaches the Sun. Hubble images
have uncovered many more fragments than have been reported by
ground-based observers. These observations provide an unprecedented
opportunity to study the demise of a comet nucleus. The comet is
currently a chain of over three dozen separate fragments, named
alphabetically, stretching across the sky by several times the angular
diameter of the Moon. Hubble caught two of the fragments, B and G (top
frames) shortly after large outbursts in activity on April 18, 19, and
20, 2006. Hubble shows several dozen "mini-comets" trailing behind each
main fragment, probably associated with the ejection of house-sized
chunks of surface material. Deep-freeze relics of the early solar
system, cometary nuclei are porous and fragile mixes of dust and ices
that can break apart due to the thermal, gravitational, and dynamical
stresses of approaching the Sun. Whether any of the many fragments
survive the trip around the Sun remains to be seen in the weeks ahead.

Credit for Hubble images: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU/APL), M. Mutchler
and Z. Levay (STScI)

Credit for ground-based image: G. Rhemann and M. Jager

To see and read more about the comet on the Web, visit:
http://hubblesite.org/news/2006/18
http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pre...006/060427.asp
http://www.spacetelescope.org

For more information, contact:

Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
(Phone: 410-338-4514, E-mail: ) or

Michael Buckley
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Md.
(Phone: 443-778-7536, E-mail: ) or

Hal Weaver
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
(Phone: 443-778-8078, Cell phone: 410-978-5172, E-mail:
)

The Hubble Space Telescope is an international cooperative project
between NASA and the European Space Agency. The Space Telescope Science
Institute in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. The
Institute
is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in
Astronomy, Inc., Washington.