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Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, one of the comets discovered by astronomers by Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Arthur Wachmann, working at the Hamburg Observatory in Bergedorf, Germany , broke into fragments on its re-entry to the inner solar system, May 1 2006, in a reaction triggered by the sun's heating the comet as it emerged from the frozen space of the outer solar system.
The comet's initial discovery was serendipity: the astronomers were exposing photographic plates in search of a minor planet, on photographs exposed for a minor planet survey, on May 2 1930. The comet was lost after its 1930 apparition, but was observed several more times. On its 1995 pass, the nucleus split in at least three pieces.