Astronomers have a new image of comet C/2025 F2 SWAN. They show a rather blurred spot with no trace of a central body. All of this, along with the behavior of the tail star last week indicates that it has fallen apart.
Comet C/2025 F2 SWAN
On April 22, the robotic system that is part of Italy’s Virtual Telescope Project received a fresh image of comet C/2025 F2 SWAN. It shows that the celestial body has very blurred contours and there are no signs of a nucleus inside. This could be the definitive evidence in favor of it breaking up.
Comet C/2025 F2 was discovered on April 8 of this year. It turned out to be small and its orbit was far from the Earth. For this reason, it was seen after it approached our luminary. No one expected a special spectacle, but among astronomy enthusiasts it became famous for its green color.
Soon C/2025 F2 SWAN was to hide from us behind the Sun, pass perihelion and fly out the other side. However, even before that, observing it was very difficult. It was too close to the horizon and the Sun.
Comet disintegration
As recently as last week, observers noticed something unusual in C/2025 F2 SWAN images. It looked too dim and bloated at the same time. That could be an indication that it had broken into pieces.
Basically, there’s nothing completely unexpected about it. It is already known that C/2025 F2 SWAN is approaching the Sun for the first time. Therefore, it is worth remembering that comets are actually just dust bound together by ice. Therefore, the disintegration of them is a probable event.
As recently as last week, most astronomers shared the view that C/2025 F2 SWAN had survived fragmentation. The only question was whether it was complete or whether there was some nucleus left. The images obtained on April 22 testify in favor of the former.
According to www.virtualtelescope.eu
