Breakup
Prior to the perihelion passage, and using 28 positions obtained between 1975 August 10 and 1976 January 27, Comet West was estimated to have an orbital period of about 254 thousand years. As the comet passed within 30 million km of the Sun, the nucleus was observed to split into four fragments.
The first report of the split came around 7 March 1976 12:30UT, when reports were received that the comet had broken into two pieces. Astronomer Steven O'Meara, using the 9-inch Harvard Refractor, reported that two additional fragments had formed on the morning of 18 March.
The fragmentation of the nucleus was, at the time, one of very few comet breakups observed, one of the most notable previous examples being the Great Comet of 1882, a member of the Kreutz Sungrazing 'family' of comets. More recently, comets Schwassmann-Wachmann-3 (73/P), C/1999 S4 LINEAR, and 57/P du Toit-Neujmin-Delporte, have been observed to disintegrate during their passage close to the Sun.
It has been more than 50AU from the Sun since 2003.
Read more about this topic: Comet West