73P/Schwassmann–Wachmann, also known as Schwassmann–Wachmann 3, is a periodic comet  that is in the process of disintegrating.
Starting the 2011 perihelion passage the primary component 73P-C was recovered on 28 November 2010
 near 
apparent magnitude 21.3; it came to perihelion(closest approach to the Sun) on 16 October 2011.

Comet Schwassmann–Wachmann 3 was one of the comets discovered by astronomers Arnold Schwassmannand Arno Arthur Wachmann, working at the Hamburg Observatory in Bergedorf, Germany.
 It began disintegrating on its re-entry to the inner Solar System in 1995, in a reaction triggered by the Sun's heating of the comet as it emerged from the colder regions of the outer Solar System.


Comet 73P is a parent body of meteor shower Tau Herculids.


73P/Schwassmann–Wachmann has an orbital period of slightly less than 5 1/3 years so that it comes nearest to the Earth every 16 years.
The primary fragment 73P-C has an Earth-
MOID of 0.04 AU (6,000,000 km; 3,700,000 mi). 73P was originally estimated to have a core diameter of 1100 meters.

In 1995, 73P began to disintegrate. It was seen to break into four large pieces labeled 73P-A, B, C, & D.
As of March 2006, at least eight fragments were known: B, C, G, H, J, L, M & N.
On April 18, 2006, the 
Hubble Space Telescope recorded dozens of pieces of fragments B and G.
 It appears that the comet may eventually disintegrate completely and cease to be observable (as did 
3D/Biela in the 19th century), in which case its designation would change from 73P to 73D.
It is now known to have split into at least 66 separate objects. Nucleus C is the largest and the presumed principal remnant of the original 
nucleus.

I shot this image on April 6th, 2006.


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