Posted by Richard Miles at 16:08 on 2012 Nov 03
Yes, it’s fascinating to watch and try to understand what is going on here. To better picture this I’ve analysed the key images including the jpegs shown recently from the WIYN and by JPL from Gemini North.You can find the result at:http://www.britastro.org/~rmiles/Documents/168P_Oct26-Nov2a.pngAlthough we use the term ‘fragment’ it is probably more accurate to use ‘condensation’ as those labelled ‘b’, ‘c’ and ‘d’ in the Figure are probably transitory in nature coming and going as lumps disintegrate releasing gas and dust. The main secondary body is ‘a’ and we shall see how long this persists in the coming weeks.