174p 20171215 jchambo

Object/Date:
174P/Echeclus @ Dec.15,2017 01:07 UT

Description:
Comet 174P/Echeclus photographed on December 15th 2017, during its last outburst. Discovered in 2000 was classified as an asteroid Centaur type circulating between orbits of Uranus and Jupiter, but years later it showed cometary activity with outbursts in 2006, 2011, 2016 and the present in 2017.

Besides of brightness increase from 17.5 to 13.5 magnitude the most remarkable has been the increase in coma size from 10 to 40 arcseconds. Thanks to resolution of Telescope IAC-80 in this image can be seen the internal structure of coma, wich shows jets departing from nucleus and a dark shape toward South.

IAC-80, Teide Observatory, Canary Islands
Paula Sola & José J. Chambó