{"id":2000112777,"date":"2026-05-22T10:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/?p=2000112777"},"modified":"2026-05-22T10:23:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:23:01","slug":"nasas-hubble-accidentally-captures-comet-breaking-apart-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/nasas-hubble-accidentally-captures-comet-breaking-apart-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Hubble accidentally captures comet breaking apart in space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The comet, officially named C\/2025 K1 (ATLAS), was not the original object researchers intended to observe. According to researchers from Auburn University, technical challenges forced them to switch to another target, only for the comet to suddenly split during observation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A comet is a giant icy object made of frozen gases, dust and rock that travels through space. Scientists consider comets to be ancient remains from the birth of the solar system billions of years ago. When they move close to the Sun, heat causes their ice to melt, creating bright glowing tails visible from Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research professor John Noonan said the team only realized what had happened after reviewing Hubble\u2019s images the next day. Instead of seeing one comet, they found four separate pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers explained that the comet likely broke apart after passing very close to the Sun, where extreme heat and pressure weaken such icy bodies. Before splitting, the comet was estimated to be about eight kilometers wide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the scientists, the breakup may help reveal ancient material hidden inside the comet for billions of years, giving researchers a better understanding of how the solar system formed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study also revealed another mystery. Scientists expected the comet to brighten immediately after splitting, but the increase in brightness happened more slowly than expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comet fragments are now drifting farther away from Earth and are unlikely to ever return to the solar system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This diagram shows the path the long-period comet C\/2025 K1 (ATLAS), or K1 for short, took as it swung past the Sun and began its journey out of the Solar System. On November 10, 2025, Hubble captured the inset image of the fragmenting comet. Hubble took this image just a month after K1\u2019s closest approach to the Sun, called perihelion. During perihelion, a comet experiences its most intense heating and maximum stress. Just past perihelion is when some long-period comets like K1 tend to fall apart. K1\u2019s perihelion was inside Mercury\u2019s orbit, about one-third the distance of the Earth from the Sun. This is the first time Hubble has witnessed a comet so early in the process of breaking up. Credit: NASA, ESA, R. Crawford (STScI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists using NASA\u2019s NASA Hubble Space Telescope have, by chance, witnessed a rare moment when a comet broke apart in space, according to findings published in the scientific journal Icarus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000112778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-2000112777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-technology","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000112778,"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/rty.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":1000,"height":562,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/rty.jpg","width":150,"height":84},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/rty.jpg","width":300,"height":169},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/rty.jpg","width":768,"height":432},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/rty.jpg","width":1000,"height":562},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/rty.jpg","width":1000,"height":562}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000112777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000112777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000112777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000112780,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000112777\/revisions\/2000112780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000112778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000112777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000112777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000112777"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=2000112777"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=2000112777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}