Astronomy Picture of the Day ·

Cold Comet Halley

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 3, 2003 is “Cold Comet Halley,” an image. It is credited to Credit: O. Hainaut (ESO-Chile) et al. , VLT Project , European Southern Observatory. The original explanation runs about 189 words.

Cold Comet Halley
Credit: O. Hainaut (ESO-Chile) et al. , VLT Project , European Southern Observatory Shown from science.nasa.gov. Not hosted by OpenOrbit.

From the explanation

“While this may not be the most esthetic image of Comet Halley that you have ever seen, it is likely the most unique. The tiny cluster of pixels circled is the famous comet along its orbit over 4 billion (4,000,000,000) kilometers or 28 AU from the Sun — a record distance for a comet observation.”

— APOD editors, October 3, 2003

Read the full explanation on science.nasa.gov

At a glance

Date
October 3, 2003
Type
Image
Credit
Credit: O. Hainaut (ESO-Chile) et al. , VLT Project , European Southern Observatory
Copyright
No copyright notice on the entry. Check the credited institution’s own usage rules before reusing it.
Explanation length
About 189 words

All of October 2003 → · 2003 by month → · Full archive since 1995 →

Topics in this entry

The SunComets

Topics are matched from words in the title and explanation.

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Source

Copy taken Oct 28, 2026, 2:39 AM EDT. The image and explanation belong to their creators. OpenOrbit is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.