Hubble image archive

Comet NEOWISE Close-up

This image of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on August 8, 2020. Hubble’s image represents the first time a comet of this brightness has been photographed at such resolution after this close of a pass by the Sun.The two structures appearing on th...

Date: Jan 1, 2020
Mission: Hubble Space Telescope
Archive ID: hubblesite-images-2020-45-4731-image

By Kakha Giorgashvili January 1, 2020

The two structures appearing on the left and right sides of the comet’s center are jets made up of ice sublimating from beneath the surface of the nucleus, with the resulting dust and gas being squeezed through at a high velocity. The jets emerge as cone-like structures, then are fanned out by the rotation of comet NEOWISE’s nucleus.

Credits

NASA, ESA, A. Pagan (STScI) and Q. Zhang (Caltech)

Image Details

About The Object
Object Name	C/2020 F3 NEOWISE
Object Description	Comet
Distance	At the time of observations, the comet was .966 AU from Earth (183 million miles).
About The Data
Data Description	The HST observations include those from the Program (Q. Zhang).
Instrument	WFC3/UVIS and ACS/WFC
Exposure Dates	8 August 2020
Filters	F487N, F689M, F845M, F775W
About The Image
Color Info	These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3 and ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F487N Green: F689M Red: F845M Luminosity: 775W