ESA - Rosetta - ESO Very Large Telescopes study comet after impact

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ESO Very Large Telescopes study comet after impact

5 July 2005

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The FORS2 multi-mode instrument on Antu, one of the 8.2m Unit Telescopes of the ESO Very Large Telescope array, at the La Silla Paranal Observatory, took this stunning image on the evening of 4 July 2005, showing that the morphology of the comet had dramatically changed: a new bright fan-like structure was now visible.

Credits: ESO

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The FORS2 multi-mode instrument on Antu, one of the 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes of the VLT array, La Silla Paranal Observatory, took this stunning image showing the comet before impact.

Credits: ESO

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The FORS2 multi-mode instrument on Antu, one of the 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) array, took stunning images on 4 July 2005, showing that the morphology of the comet had dramatically changed.

Credits: ESO

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The first ESO observations were done in the infrared by the TMMI2 instrument at the 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla, at 21:20 CEST (still daylight in Chile).

These first observations showed the comet to be two to three times brighter in the infrared than the day before the impact. The coma is also much more extended than it was before the impact.

Credits: ESO

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At La Silla, the SOFI instrument on the ESO NTT telescope imaged the comet in the near-infrared. An image in the J-band also shows the dust shell from the impact in the south-western quadrant of the coma.

Credits: ESO

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