Comet 2I/Borisov

Hubble Tracks Comet Borisov’s Flight Through Solar System

This time-lapse Hubble movie shows comet Borisov's journey through our solar system. Background stars appear as streaks of light because Hubble is tracking the moving comet. The amount of stars changes as the comet travels from low- to high-density stellar regions in the background.

The video was created using 37 images taken between Dec. 9, 2019, and Feb. 24, 2020. The total observation time for all of the images was three to four hours. However, the observations were made on five separate days: Dec. 9, 2019; Dec. 23, 2019; Jan. 3, 2020; Jan. 29, 2020; and Feb. 24, 2020.

The video is composed of images taken in visible light by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3.

About the colours

This image is an exposure acquired by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. The color results from assigning the color blue to a monochromatic (grayscale) image.

About the data

HST observations include those from programs 16009 (D. Jewitt).