The small-scale splitting event in Comet Hale-Bopp on 1997—03—04

Abstract

This paper briefly describes the small scale splitting of the nucleus of comet Hale-Bopp which was observed on March 4, 1997 by use of the 200 mm refractor at Purple Mountain Observatory. It is also show that the separated small fragneti of the nucleus has its own jet with a projective length of 5.04×10 3 km, while the maximum projective distance between the two separated nuclei is about 2.19×10 4 km. The data were processed by use of image enhancement technique.