ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

This image is 2070 miles across (3340 km) and shows that most of the dust is being produced on the sunward-facing hemisphere of the comet. Also at upper left are three small pieces which have broken off the comet and are forming there own tails.

Icy regions on the nucleus are activated as they rotate into sunlight, ejecting large amounts of dust in the jets that are faintly visible in this image. Sunlight striking this dust eventually turns it around and "blows" it into the tailward hemisphere. What might be another jet is emanating from the nightside of the nucleus, but this direction might be misleading due to the angle of the jet relative to our line-of-site.

Object Name: Comet Hyakutake

Image Type: Astronomical

NEWS RELEASE IMAGES

The above image is part of a montage:

Montage Image: Inner Region Near Heart of Comet Hyakutake Image Type: Astronomical PRC1996-14 Close-Up of Nucleus of Comet Hyakutake Image Type: Astronomical Close-up of Fragments From Comet Hyakutake Image Type: Astronomical

All images from this news release:

To access available information and downloadable versions of images in this news release, click on any of the images below: