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PIA07222: Riding a Trail of Debris
This image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the comet Encke riding along its pebbly trail of debris (long diagonal line) between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
 Target Name:  Encke
 Mission:  Spitzer Space Telescope 
 Instrument:  MIPS 
 Product Size:  2154 x 2154 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  California Institute of Technology 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA07222.tif (6.884 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA07222.jpg (215.1 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

figure 1 for PIA07222
Figure 1

This image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the comet Encke riding along its pebbly trail of debris (long diagonal line) between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This material actually encircles the solar system, following the path of Encke's orbit. Twin jets of material can also be seen shooting away from the comet in the short, fan-shaped emission, spreading horizontally from the comet.

Encke, which orbits the Sun every 3.3 years, is well traveled. Having exhausted its supply of fine particles, it now leaves a long trail of larger more gravel-like debris, about one millimeter in size or greater. Every October, Earth passes through Encke's wake, resulting in the well-known Taurid meteor shower.

This image was captured by Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer when Encke was 2.6 times farther away than Earth is from the Sun. It is the best yet mid-infrared view of the comet at this great distance. The data are helping astronomers understand how rotating comets eject particles as they circle the Sun.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Minn.

Image Addition Date:
2005-01-11