New Photos Reveal Great Comet's Spiraling Jets (Robert Roy Britt)

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Rare images of the heart of a popular comet and revealed jets of gas spiraling thousands of miles into space.

Feb. 24, 2007 -- Astronomers have made rare images of the heart of a popular comet and revealed jets of gas spiraling thousands of miles into space.

Comet McNaught has been called the Great Comet of 2007 for the show it put on first in the Northern Hemisphere and then south of the equator. The ball of ice and dirt hung frustratingly close to the Sun, however, so many skywatchers never got a good look.

Comet McNaught Images: Gallery 1 and Gallery 2

The New Technology Telescope (NTT) at the European Southern Observatory in Chile was used to make detailed observations that were released yesterday. Scientists found sodium in the comet's emissions, something rare in a comet, they said.

"We had previously pointed the NTT very low to observe the planet Mercury, which is very close to the Sun and is therefore only visible low in the sky just after sunset," said ESO astronomer Colin Snodgrass. "I realized that we could take advantage of the same low pointing limit to observe the comet while it was near the Sun."

The images reveal three jets of gas that spiral away from the comet's rotating nucleus.