Full nucleus rotation!

Authors: Laurent Jorda, Jean Lecacheux, François Colas and Pierre Laques
Location: Pic de Midi Observatory (France)
Optics: 105 cm telescope.

Animation made with 50 CCD images obtained on February 28th between 3:50 and 15:35 UT (11.4 hours): about one frame every 10 minutes. It has been possible because comet Hale-Bopp has become bright enough to be observable during day-time. The first and the last image are quite the same, closing the loop.

Animated GIF (512 K) wich shows motions in the coma. It's based on 106 images obtained during a 2.5 hour observing period in the morning of February 22.

Animated GIFs (66 K and 203 K) that show the formation of new shells of dust and the expansion of these waves in the coma. The first sequence covers a field of 57" x 70" and shows the ejection of a new shell towards the south-west (PA 209 degrees).

These false color images were taken 2 minutes apart. Field is 260 arcseconds across (4' 20"). The projected distance between the wavefronts in this fan-shape geometry is about 15000 km.

Animated GIF (66 K) wich shows the expansion of the waves or shells motions in the coma. This intrincate structure indicates an apparently 'pulsed' emission of dust from the nucleus. This may well be connected to the rotation of this body, because more dust is released when an active region on the surface of the nucleus is in sunlight.