Captured by Hubble’s STIS (Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph) instrument, this image shows the disintegration of comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS). This is the first time Hubble has witnessed a comet so early in the process of breaking up. Hubble caught K1 fragmenting into at least four pieces, each with a distinct coma, the fuzzy envelope of gas and dust that surrounds a comet’s icy nucleus. Hubble cleanly resolved the fragments, but from the ground, they only appeared as barely distinguishable blobs.

Tag-uri: accident