Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 Splits Again

COMET S-W 3: PARTS 4

Last September periodic comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 became much brighter than expected, and by December it was obvious to observers that the nucleus had split into at least four pieces. Now an assessment by JPL dynamicist Zdenek Sekanina suggests that the first large chunk most probably came off on October 24th, and this fragment likely split two more times by December 1st.

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