Comet NEOWISE wowed astronomers this summer as it sailed through the northern skies through most of July. The ball of ice and dust was only discovered on March 27 but quickly proved to be the brightest comet seen in the Northern Hemisphere since 1997. NASA’s Hubble telescope has now taken a good look at the comet, exposing bright jets of gas venting from its large nucleus.
The NASA photos were snapped on August 8, almost one month after the comet came close to skimming the surface of the Sun and survived.
On July 3, Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) came within 27 million miles (43 million km) of the star.
Astronomers would typically expect a comet caught this close to the Sun to disintegrate due to the heat and gravitational pressure of the Sun.
But NEOWISE survived and went on to put a magnificent show for the whole of the Northern Hemisphere.
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And according to NASA, this is the first time Hubble has photographed a comet this bright, at such resolution, after such a close pass of the Sun.
Lead researcher Qicheng Zhang of the California Institute of Technology said: “Hubble has far better resolution that we can get with any other telescope of this comet.
“The resolution is very key for seeing details very close to the nucleus.
“It lets us see changes in dust right after it’s stripped from that nucleus due to solar heat, sampling dust as close to the original properties of the comet as possible.”
The comet is now racing into the outer solar system, travelling at an astounding 144,000mph (231,745kph).
NEOWISE was discovered on March 27 using NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission.
Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE principal investigator at the University of Arizona, said: “In its discovery images, Comet NEOWISE appeared as a glowing, fuzzy dot moving across the sky even when it was still pretty far away.
“As soon as we saw how close it would come to the Sun, we had hopes that it would put on a good show.”