Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, Dennis Bodewits (AU); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

This series of images from NASA?s Hubble Space Telescope of the fragmenting comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), or K1 for short, was taken over the course of three consecutive days: Nov. 8, 9, and 10, 2025. Captured by Hubble?s STIS (Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph) instrument, the sequence shows the progressive disintegration of the comet over this brief period. This is the first time Hubble has witnessed a comet so early in the process of breaking up.

Hubble caught K1 fragmenting into at least five pieces, each with a distinct coma, the fuzzy envelope of gas and dust that surrounds a comet?s icy nucleus. Hubble cleanly resolved the fragments, but from the ground they only appeared as barely distinguishable, bright blobs.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2026/news-2026-010

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://stsci.edu/copyright/