Researchers snapped a photo of comet Lovejoy on December 27, 2014 as part of the Dark Energy Survey, according to a press release from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batava, Ill. The 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera - the most powerful digital camera in the world - was used to capture the comet in the southern skies, according to the press release. Each rectangle represents one of the 62 individual fields of the camera.
At the time of the photo, Lovejoy was 51 million miles away from Earth. The Dark Energy Camera is sensitive to light up to 8 billion light-years away, according to the press release, so taking the photo of the 3-mile wide ice ball was an easy feat. The visible head of the comet is 400,000 miles in diameter of gas and dust.
