Hubble's Panoramic Picture of Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9
A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9, taken on May 17, 1994, with the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 (WFPC-2) in wide field mode.
When the comet was observed, its train of 21 icy fragments stretched across 710 thousand miles (1.1 million km) of space, or 3 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. This required 6 WFPC exposures spaced along the comet train to include all the nuclei. The image was taken in red light.
Credit:
HA. Weaver, T. ESmith ( Space Telescope Science Institute), and NASA/ESA
About the Image
NASA press release
NASA caption
NASA caption
| Id: | opo9426c |
| Type: | Observation |
| Release date: | 7 July 1994, 06:00 |
| Size: | 1024 x 480 px |
About the Object
| Name: | Shoemaker-Levy 9 |
| Type: | • Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Comet • Solar System Images/Videos |
Colours & filters
| Band | Telescope |
| Optical R |
Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
