Intrigued, Weaver reprogrammed Hubble to take a second look. Hubble's sharp eye revealed that the comet indeed had broken apart into an armada of frozen fragments. Images taken Aug. 6 with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Cerro Paranal, Chile, have confirmed the finding. Venting gases shatter small comets more easily than large ones. It may be a fragment of a much larger comet, and such fragments tend to suddenly disintegrate.
Astronomers continue to monitor the comet's fate.
At press time, new Hubble observations were set for Aug. 10. All rights reserved. Subscribe to Science News . Copyright Clearance Center Browse a Science News photo collection. Subscribe to Science News in spoken-word format.