Comet Linear put on quite a respectable show in mid July 2000.
It never became visible to the unaided eye, but looked nice in a small telescope, with a bright star-like head and fan shaped tail.
Then on July 27th it began to fade dramatically.
Over the next few days the head almost vanished, leaving a wisp of tail the only obvious remnant of the comet.
Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope in Chile showed that the comet had completely disintegrated,
breaking up into a large number of small pieces.
It is quite common for comets to break up around perihelion (their closest approach to the Sun),
suggesting that they are not solid objects but loose aggregations of ice and dust - flying gravel piles.
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