A view of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope on April 23, 2020. The comet has fragmented into more than a dozen pieces. (

A view of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope on April 23, 2020. The comet has fragmented into more than a dozen pieces. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, and D. Jewitt (UCLA))Comet ATLAS (formally known as C/2019 Y4) has disintegrated before our very eyes, and two new images from the Hubble 

space telescope

 show the comet has crumbled into 25 pieces. 

After the comet was discovered on Dec. 29, 2019 by the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) robotic survey system, it start quick briten. However, in mid-March the comet started to abruptly dim and, as ATLAS later confirmed, its icy core started to break apart and disintegrate 91 million miles (146 million kilometers) from Earth. 

Incredibly, Hubble was able to capture this comet's demise. On April 20, Hubble observed 30 fregment from the comet and, just a few days later on April 23, it spotted only 25 pieces.