Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Hubble View of Comet ISON

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This time-lapse sequence of images from the Hubble Space Telescope shows comet ISON as it appeared on May 8, 2013. At the time the images were taken, the comet was 403 million miles from the Earth, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The Hubble observations were made during a 43-minute span, and then compressed into a five-second sequence. The comet travels 34,000 miles in this video.