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05-11-2006, 02:18 AM
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has snapped a picture of the bits and pieces making up Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3, which is continuing to break apart on its periodic journey around the sun. The new infrared view shows several chunks of the comet riding along its own dusty trail of crumbs.
"Spitzer has revealed a trail of meteor-sized debris filling the comet's orbit," said Dr. William T. Reach of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Reach and his team recently observed the comet using Spitzer. The picture can be viewed at http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media....a.shtml (http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2006-13/ssc2006-13a.shtml)
http://ipac.jpl.nasa.gov/media_images/ssc2006-13a_small.jpg
"Spitzer has revealed a trail of meteor-sized debris filling the comet's orbit," said Dr. William T. Reach of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Reach and his team recently observed the comet using Spitzer. The picture can be viewed at http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media....a.shtml (http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2006-13/ssc2006-13a.shtml)
http://ipac.jpl.nasa.gov/media_images/ssc2006-13a_small.jpg