Astronomer
Gianluca Masi built this animation of a crumbling comet as it appears to pass
near the Ring Nebula.
The Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann
3 is falling
to pieces as it passes through the Solar System, giving professional and
amateur skywatchers alike a fantastic show.
Here, a fragment
of the comet – Fragment C – appears to approach the circular nebula M57, which
has garnered the name Ring Nebula
due to its shape.
Masi, of
the Bellatrix Observatory, and colleague Antonella Basso used a Takahashi FS-102
telescope and CCD camera to catch the series of images included in this image.
The astronomers photographed the comet and M57 on May 8, 2006.
-- Tariq Malik
Credit: G. Masi/A. Basso/Bellatrix
Observatory.
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