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(NASA\/ESA\/AU\/STScI via SWNS)<\/p>\n
By Dean Murray<\/p>\n
Space scientists have captured a comet<\/a> breaking into pieces by accident.<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope<\/a> witnessed the incredibly rare event while searching for another cosmic target.<\/p>\n The comet K1, whose full name is C\/2025 K1 (ATLAS), was seen disintegrating over a period of three days.<\/p>\n NASA Hubble Mission Team said: “In a happy twist of fate, NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope just witnessed a comet in the act of breaking apart. The chance of that happening while Hubble watched is extraordinarily minuscule.”<\/p>\n The findings have been published in the journal Icarus<\/a>.<\/p>\n (NASA\/ESA\/STScI via SWNS)<\/p>\n By Talker<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes the best science happens by accident,\u201d said co-investigator John Noonan, a research professor in the Department of Physics at Auburn University<\/a> in Alabama. \u201cThis comet got observed because our original comet was not viewable due to some new technical constraints after we won our proposal. We had to find a new target\u2014and right when we observed it, it happened to break apart, which is the slimmest of slim chances.\u201d<\/p>\n NASA explained that this is an experiment the researchers have always wanted to do with Hubble.<\/p>\n They said: “They had proposed many Hubble observations to catch a comet breaking up. Unfortunately, these are very difficult to schedule, and they were never successful.”<\/p>\n \u201cThe irony is now we’re just studying a regular comet and it crumbles in front of our eyes,\u201d said principal investigator Dennis Bodewits, also a professor in Auburn University\u2019s Department of Physics.<\/p>\n (NASA\/ESA\/STScI via SWNS)<\/p>\n By Talker<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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