Expansive Comet Holmes


	Expansive Comet Holmes

book-mole

11-22-2007 3:24 AM

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tags:

apod, comet holmes, space, image

1 Comment |

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11-25-2007 12:58 AM

rmowery

So this thing is currently in orbit around the sun. There is no indication that this thing would hit anywhere, but if it hit something like the sun or another planet - it sounds like it could change things a bit?

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/76848f39-4179-4011-b692-24ec516904e2/12309EDA-CA90-4CC9-8E37-9117A5E7D7D4/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071121.html" href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071121.html" style="font-size: 11px;">antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071121.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/img/3EF70AF0-E1D7-4AAA-9377-8499998A241B" alt="See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
 the highest resolution version available." /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071121.html"><P>
<B> Explanation: </B>
The spherical coma of Comet Holmes has swollen
to a diameter of over 1.4 <I>million</I> kilometers, making the
tenuous, dusty cloud even
<A href="http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/faculty/jewitt/holmes.html">bigger
than the Sun</A>.
Scattering sunlight, all that dust and gas came from the comet's
remarkably
<A href="http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/
40/image/a/">active nucleus</A>, whose diameter before
the late October
<A href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071026.html">outburst</A> was estimated to be a
mere 3.4 kilometers.
In this sharp image, recorded on November 14 with
the <A href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000905.html">Canada-France-Hawaii</A> Telescope,
stars are easily visible right through the outer
<A href="http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/comet_worldbook.html">coma</A>,
while the
<A href="http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/
40/image/a/format/web_print/">nucleus is buried</A> inside the condensed,
bright region.
<A href="http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/
40/image/d/">The bright region</A> of the coma seems offset from
the center, consistent with the idea that a
large fragment drifted away from the nucleus
and disintegrated, producing the comet's spectacular outburst.
Of course, more
<A href="http://spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_holmes_page20.htm">recent
images</A> of Holmes also
show the bright star Mirfak (Alpha Persei) shining through
as the comet sweeps slowly through the constellation
<A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseus_(constellation)">Perseus</A>.
</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/12309EDA-CA90-4CC9-8E37-9117A5E7D7D4/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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