What happened to Comet Holmes?

[suggums]

so here's the gist: this comet is on its orbit out towards Jupiter as per usual and suddenly starts getting progressively brighter. like, a million times brighter in a matter of hours. and it's still getting brighter every day. i just went outside and can see it now, the thing looks like a fuzzy star right near perseus.

http://www.danlessmann.com/images/Astro/CometHolmes/Holmes(17P)_2007-10-28_SizeCompare_10-27.jpg

not only is this explosive brightness of comets totally new to astronomers on this scale, but the thing doesn't seem to have a tail (at least from here, Earth's viewing angle).

anyone care to speculate? hopefully mike the teacher will stop by

[suggums]

can i at least get some thread views

[torker]

Miss Comet Wadd.
http://www.circumstitions.com/Images/Famous/jholmes.gif

[Mike Teacher]

Well, it looks very visible and very Green.

It's a usually obscure little comet that exploded into naked-eye visibility. The news isn't covering it much; but it's very bright, enough to see in city light no problem. I took some photos:

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m110/MizzleT/Holmes_04.jpg

The 'Blob' is the tail, there's a tiny core of dirty rock and ice and the center

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m110/MizzleT/Holmes_12.jpg

Google Comet Holmes to find out how to see it. Better yet, find someone who can point it out to you. Looks like a star, but not a point of light.

[Furtherman]

What happened to Comet Holmes?

Lost to Comet Tyson.

[topless_mike]

Lost to Comet Tyson.
:wallbash: for not thinking of that myself.

[Chigworthy]

There was a pocket of alien mind control gas encapsulated in the ice of the comet. The ice must have wore away, exposing the mind control gas chamber. The gas violently decompressed then froze when it was exposed to the void. So the comet got bigger.

[Marc with a c]

"yo holmes smell ya later"

[Marc with a c]

i'm sorry my above posts makes absoluely no sense. i didn't actually read the original post and just going by the thread title i assumed it had vanished.

thank you.

[PapaBear]

Found this...

How you can find the comet

Step 1. Face northeast. Which way is northeast? If you live in the northern hemisphere, the sun is setting in the southwest now. Watch the sunset, wait an hour until the sky gets dark, and stand with your back to the sunset direction. You are now facing northeast.
Step 2. Get oriented in the sky. Look first for a 3- or W-shaped pattern of stars. See it on the chart to the right? The W-shaped pattern is easy to spot. This is the constellation Cassiopeia. The constellation Perseus is below Cassiopeia in the northeast. Perseus is not as bright or prominent as Cassiopeia, but the comet now appears as one of the brightest stars in Perseus.
Step 3. Sweep for the comet. “Sweep” just means look steadily, systematically, sweeping your eyes from side to side at the place in the sky where you think the comet should be. Comet Holmes looks like a round, fuzzy ball in front of Perseus. It’s almost as bright as Mirfak, Perseus’ brightest star.
Remember, all stars look like pinpoints. Comet Holmes is a fuzzball.


The chart...
http://www.earthsky.org/images/15962.jpg

[Furtherman]

A comet that has delighted backyard astronomers in recent weeks after an unexpected eruption has now grown larger than the sun. (http://www.space.com/spacewatch/071115-comet-holmes-size.html)

The sun remains by far the most massive object in the solar system, with an extended influence of particles that reaches all the planets. But the comparatively tiny Comet Holmes has released so much gas and dust that its extended atmosphere, or coma, is larger than the diameter of the sun.

http://a52.g.akamaitech.net/f/52/827/1d/www.space.com/images/071115-holmes_jewitt-02.jpg
Comet Holmes (left) from the 3.6-meter Canada-France-Hawaii telescope on Mauna Kea showing the coma at 869,900 miles (1.4 million kilometers) in diameter. The white ''star'' near the center of the coma is in fact the dust-shrouded nucleus of the comet.The sun and the planet Saturn are shown at the same scale for comparison. Credit: University of Hawaii/CFHT (comet); NASA/Voyager (Saturn); NASA/ESA/SOHO (sun)

[midwestjeff]

Does this mean that our alien overlords are finally coming back for the gold we've been mining for them?

Linger longer...or just listen to today's OnA replay.

[topless_mike]

maybe the aliens want some oil as well

[ralphbxny]

Comet Holmes....That motherfucker owes me $20!!!

If I catch him I want my money.

[Knowledged_one]

Lost to Comet Tyson.

Is now starting in place of an injured Comet Johnson?

[Recyclerz]

Maybe it took a cue from Comet McDonald and shot that shit to the sky.









Yay Sleeves!

[RAAMONE]

is married to Comet Cruise?

[Knowledged_one]

Is busy solving cases with comet Watson?