Comet LINEAR C/2005 A1 Fragments!

Comet LINEAR C/2005 A1 Fragments!

Imaged at ASO Petit Jean Mountain South (H45) on both August 2 and again on August 8 (UT), comet C/2005 A1 (LINEAR) shows two major components to the comet, both traveling in nearly synchronous pathways relative to one-another. In a one week period (see photos), the secondary ("B") component of this comet has remained relatively stationary to the primary ("A") nuclear center of this comet, at an angular distance measured as about 20.8 arc seconds. Note also that the Position Angle (PA) has also not changed relative to the primary component at all.

CCD photometry provides a magnitude of 13.1 for the A component and 16.8 for the B secondary component. In this negative image, you can clearly see that the secondary component has some degree of nebulosity associated with it as does the primary "A" portion of the comet with its broad fanned tail.