Comet C\/2025 K1 (ATLAS)<\/a> was not the original target for the Hubble observations however, plans changed after the original comet they wanted to observe was no longer viewable due to technical constraints.\n<\/p>\n“Sometimes the best science happens by accident,” said co-investigator John Noonan, a research professor in the Department of Physics at Auburn University in Alabama.<\/p>\n
Hubble’s images, taken on Nov. 8, 9 and 10, 2025, showed K1 had broken into at least four distinct pieces, each surrounded by its own coma, the fuzzy envelope of gas and dust that surrounds a comet’s icy nucleus. Before it fragmented, the team said K1 was likely around 5 miles across.<\/p>\n
The comet is now a collection of fragments about 249 million miles from Earth, heading out of the solar system and not likely to return.\n<\/p>\n
The researchers said observations like this can help explain why some long-period comets split apart, and they noted ESA’s planned Comet Interceptor mission is designed to study a long-period comet up close later this decade.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/NASA-sends-Crew-12-to-ISS_1_1.jpg\")
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\t\t SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket with NASA’s Crew-12 aboard lifts off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida on February 13, 2026. Photo by Kate Benic\/UPI | License Photo<\/a>\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This series of Hubble Space Telescope images of the fragmenting comet C\/2025 K1 (ATLAS), or K1 for short,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82,247,38,425],"class_list":["post-356902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space","tag-top-stories","tag-u-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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This series of Hubble Space Telescope images of the fragmenting comet C\/2025 K1 (ATLAS), or K1 for short, was taken over the course of three consecutive days: November 8, 9, and 10, 2025. Captured by Hubble&rsquos STIS instrument. Photos courtesy of NASA, ESA, D. Bodewits (Auburn). Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)<\/p>\n