NASA's Hubble watches comet ATLAS breakup into over two dozen pieces
Image Credit: NASA
The images of comet ATLAS taken on April 20 and 23, 2020 by NASA's Hubble Telescope yielded new evidence about the breakup of the fragile comet. Hubble identified about 30 fragments of the comet on April 20, and 25 pieces on April 23. All these fragments of comet ATLAS are enveloped in a sunlight-swept tail of cometary dust. Events at such scale only happen once or twice a decade, said the leader of a 2nd Hubble observing team.