Comet C/2019 Y4 Atlas fragmentation: more observations – 16 Apr. 2020
New images of comet C/2014 Y4 Atlas were obtained under good seeing conditions and they show a couple of main fragments and a likely a trailing cloud of debris.
C/2019 Y4 Atlas and its fragments. 16 Apr. 2020
The image above comes from the average of 53, 60-seconds exposures, remotely taken with the “Elena” (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available at Virtual Telescope. The telescope tracked the apparent motion of the comet and images were stacked using the orbit of the comet, to provide the best accuracy. Image scale is 0.63″/pixel. Wavelet analysis was carefully performed to enhance subtle details in the inner coma: we likely see two pieces/condensations and a cloud of trailing debris. The overall look of the comet evolved quite a lot over the last week.
We have much more data from all the past nights and we are processing them, to provide a detailed analysis, but we wanted to share right away this latest, amazing view of comet C/2019 Y4 Atlas. Here you can find all our observations of this comet.
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