Hubble snaps close-up of celebrity comet NEOWISE

The Hubble Space Telescope has snapped the closest images yet of the sky's latest visitor to make headlines, comet NEOWISE, after it passed by the Sun. This is the first time Hubble has photographed a comet of this brightness at such resolution after this close of a pass by the Sun.

The comet photos were taken after NEOWISE skimmed closest to the Sun on July 3, 2020, at a distance of 27 million miles (43 million kilometers). Other comets often break apart due to thermal and gravitational stresses at such close encounters, but Hubble's view shows that apparently NEOWISE's solid nucleus stayed intact.

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Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Pagan (STScI), and Q. Zhang (Caltech)

This image of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on Aug. 8, 2020. Hubble's image represents the first time a comet of this brightness has been photographed at such resolution after this close of a pass by the Sun.

The two structures appearing on the left and right sides of the comet's center are jets made up of ice sublimating from beneath the surface of the nucleus, with the resulting dust and gas being squeezed through at a high velocity. The jets emerge as cone-like structures, then are fanned out by the rotation of comet NEOWISE's nucleus.

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Comet Neowise, a newly discovered comet is streaked past Earth.

Comet NEOWISE is considered the brightest comet visible from the Northern Hemisphere since 1997's Hale-Bopp. It's headed beyond the outer solar system, now traveling at a whopping 144,000 miles per hour.

It will not return to the Sun for another nearly 7,000 years.