These are NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of comet Hyakutake (designated C/1996 B2), taken at 8:30 P.M.. EST on Monday, March 25 when the comet passed at a distance of only 9.3 million miles from Earth. Unlike most of the published images of Hyakutake, these Hubble images...
The Hubble telescope snapped pictures of comet Hyakutake March 25, 1996, when the comet was just 9.3 million miles from Earth.
Unlike most of the published images of Hyakutake, the Hubble pictures focus on a very small region near the heart of the comet, the icy, solid nucleus. The images provide an exceptionally clear view of the near-nucleus region of comet Hyakutake. The image above is a complete view of the 2,070-mile-wide (3,340-kilometer-wide) comet. This picture shows that most of the dust is being produced on the comet's sunward-facing hemisphere. Also at upper left are three small pieces that have broken off the comet and are forming their own tails.
