Overview
- NASA and ESA published Hubble images that resolve at least four fragments of C/2025 K1, with one piece splitting again over three days.
- Trajectory analysis indicates the disintegration began roughly eight days earlier, shortly after a 0.33 AU perihelion inside Mercury’s orbit.
- The event was captured only because technical constraints forced a last-minute switch from the team’s original comet target to K1.
- The comet brightened later than expected, suggesting dust crust formation or delayed subsurface heating and pressure as possible triggers.
- Early measurements show unusually low carbon in the released gases, as the dispersed fragments recede about 240–250 million miles from Earth on a one-way path out of the Solar System.