Gemini Observatory images reveal striking details of comet NEOWISE

When Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) sped through the inner Solar System during the middle of 2020, astronomers and the general public watched in awe as this "dirty snowball" shed gas and dust into space, producing a striking show visible to the naked eye.

Close-up observations, led by Michal Drahus and Piotr Guzik of Jagiellonian University in Krakow, used the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab, to observe the materials escaping from the comet over time.

Continued...
Source

Credit: Comet NEOWISE Rotation Sequence

One set of observations, obtained on 1 August 2020 from the Gemini North telescope on Hawai'i's Maunakea, displays a spiraling stream of molecular gas that reveals the rotation of the comet's nucleus. The timelapse sequence, compressed to only a few seconds, represents about one fifth of the approximately 7.5-hour rotation period of the comet.

Source / Image Courtesy

Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Drahus/P. Guzik/J. Pollard

A sequence of eight images reveals the rotation of Comet NEOWISE using data from the international Gemini Observatory’s Gemini North telescope on Hawai‘i’s Maunakea.

The images were obtained on 1 August 2020 using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph over a period of of 1.5 hours. In this sequence, the set of eight images are looped nine times.

Source