Comet Hergenrother Splitting Apart

Comet Hergenrother which astronomers have been following for the past several weeks is splitting apart, according to reports from NASA.

The 168P/Hergenrother comet which reached the closest point of the sun in the first week of October was expected to faint, but a sudden outburst of gas and dust resulted in the comet becoming 500 times brighter than expected, reported EarthSky.

Amateur and professional astronomers have been following the icy-dirt ball (comet) for the past several weeks as it was spotted releasing a series of impressive outbursts of cometary-dust material. Hergenrother comet is currently passing through the inner-solar system.

Astronomers have noticed that the comet's nucleus has moved to the next step and has started splitting into four individual pieces releasing large amounts of dust material. The fragmentation was initially observed on Oct. 26 using the Faulkes Telescope North in Haleakala, Hawaii and another telescope in Arizona.

"Comet Hergenrother is splitting apart," Rachel Stevenson, a post-doctoral fellow working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif, said in a statement from NASA.

"Using the National Optical Astronomy Observatory's Gemini North Telescope on top of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, we have resolved that the nucleus of the comet has separated into at least four distinct pieces resulting in a large increase in dust material in its coma," she said.

Comet Hergenrother was first discovered in 1998 by American astronomer Carl W. Hergenrother. He spotted the images taken by a telescope used in the Catalina Sky Survey. 

It was initially thought that the comet had a parabolic orbit, which does not allow the comet to return. But astronomers later detected that it was periodic comet that has an orbital period of 6.9 years. As part of its periodic nature, the comet is labeled as 168P/Hergenrother, a report in Astronomy magazine said.

Now that the comet is splitting apart, more dust material that has been released is reflecting the sun's rays, thus increasing the brightness of the comet's coma to a great extent.

"The comet fragments are considerably fainter than the nucleus," said James Bauer, the deputy principal investigator for NASA's NEOWISE mission, from the California Institute of Technology.

"This is suggestive of chunks of material being ejected from the surface," he said.

The comet can be seen as appearing between the constellations of Andromeda and Lacerta. Experts pointed out that the comet and its fragments are not posing any threat to Earth.