On the evening of October 25 was my first viewing of Comet Holmes. This night lab proved to be a wondrous event. We were able to see the comet with and without a telescope!!! A very rare sight.
This periodic comet has never been so bright since its discovery by Edwin Holmes on November 16, 1892. On Wednesday October 24, 2007 P/Comet Holmes grew 400,000 times brighter than the day before- it became visible in Perseus.
It went from a +17 to+3 in apparent magnitude in a few hours. From too faint to see with our Mt A telescopes, to naked eye visibility.
Unfortunately the moon was very bright that evening making it a little more difficult to see.
The key question is how and why did it brighten so rapidly? No one has figured out the answer yet. There has been a huge increase of gas outflow, the reason unknown.
A few possibilities are:
- loss of outer crust
- impact with asteroid, which exposed new ice
- build up of gas inside that broke through crust
- impact with meteoroid stream
- chemical reactions in nucleus disrupted comet
- comet fragmented
Currently Comet Holmes does not show an actual tail, but does have a cloudy region surrounding it which may become a tail. If it does get a tail it will always point away from the sun.
Hopefully it will remain visible for a while longer and will develop a tail.
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