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Hubble Captures a comet breaking up
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29-04-2006 2:58am#1A comet that is breaking up before astronomers' eyes has been captured in unprecedented detail by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 orbits the Sun every 5.4 years and was seen to brighten and separate into four large fragments in 1995. Now more than three dozen fragments have been found. Its orbit will reach its closest point to Earth on 12 May 2006, and in recent weeks, astronomers have observed more brightening events, suggesting the fragments themselves are breaking into smaller pieces.
Now, Hubble has observed several of the fragments - including B (see image, and scroll down for a further image) - in detail after such brightening events. The break-ups leave the smallest fragments trailing behind the parent bodies at the largest distances, and some appear to disappear completely after several days.
Several processes may cause comets to break apart. They can be ripped apart gravitationally after passing by massive bodies, disintegrate from heating after they near the Sun, break apart because they spin too fast, or pop apart when trapped gases escape from inside them.
"Catastrophic break-ups may be the ultimate fate of most comets," says Hal Weaver of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, US, who is on the Hubble team. Observations with Hubble and other telescopes may reveal which of the processes are at work in Comet 73P.
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