Comet 252P/LINEAR
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured images of Comet 252P/LINEAR just after it swept by Earth on March 21. The visit was one of the closest encounters between a comet and our planet. The comet traveled within million miles of Earth, or about 14 times the distance between our planet and the moon. The images reveal a narrow, well-defined jet of dust ejected by the comet's icy, fragile nucleus. These observations also represent the closest celestial object Hubble has observed, other than the moon. The comet will return to the inner solar system again in 2021.
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Keywords: 252p/linear, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, body, celestial, comet, cosmography, cosmological, cosmology, cosmos, heavenly, jet, object, science, universe
