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Topic:
Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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VadersLaMent
Registered:
Apr '02
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Date Posted:
10/29/07 1:50pm
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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That comparison to Jupiter is sweet. I'm gonna post it in the jcc.
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Kimball_Kinnison
Registered:
Oct '01
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Date Posted:
10/29/07 4:14pm
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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I ran into a few of my neighbors tonight on my way into my apartment. We're all going to gather outside at around 10pm with my binoculars to observe it for a bit. As I went to get my mail, I ran into one of my neighbors and his son, and they both got excited about getting the chance to see a comet.
Kimball Kinnison
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I think that Kimball just made a joke, and a funny joke at that.- Raven
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darthOB1
Registered:
Mar '00
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Date Posted:
10/29/07 8:59pm
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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Obi-Zahn Kenobi posted:
"A doomsday bomb . . . "
 I just spit coffee all over my monitor!
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Isbeth
Title: Maryland FanForce
Hospitality Mistress
Registered:
Aug '01
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Date Posted:
10/30/07 1:26pm
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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Kimball, you never saw Comet Hyakatke [sic] and/or Comet Hale/Bopp? Now those were comets, not this measley puff ball of a comet. It has no tail. Seriously, keep us posted of your attempts to locate it. I think we all need to keep watching this thing. Thanks Vader's LaMent for posting it on JCC? What thread, never, mind, I will find it.
I have been getting a kick out of watching it in my backyard with 10 X 50's. You know watching it with binos every night and having Luke's lightsaber orbiting earth, I am waiting for someone to suggest it is an exploded death star effect to celebrate the 30th. anniversary of Star Wars, designed by Lucas himself. 
Seriously, latest theory is that it has fissures on it, kind of like thin ice and when they break through, they spew gas, ice and dust everywhere.
BTW, my boyfriend got mad that I didn't post that his picture of the comet got astronomy.com's picture of the day, so here is the link .
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"I want to see the color of your eyes in the wind at my side"-Xanatos in Ashes by Lia Jinn
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Lowbacca_1977
Title: Senate Moderator
Registered:
Jun '06
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Date Posted:
10/30/07 1:39pm
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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Took a while to find it, but I found it last night. I can barely find it naked eye. Darn L.A. sky
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darthOB1
Registered:
Mar '00
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Date Posted:
10/30/07 9:22pm
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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I agree with Isbeth.
Those two comets were spectacular by comparison.
The only comet in my life I would compare to this one would be the dissapointing Halley's.
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Lowbacca_1977
Title: Senate Moderator
Registered:
Jun '06
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Date Posted:
10/30/07 10:14pm
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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This is way cooler than Hale-Bopp or Hyakutake, I think, although I'm also a nerd on this stuff. Similarly, Shoemaker-Levy 9 tops it.
Though the other two were more spectacular and visible, there's also something really cool about looking straight down a tail, or the idea of something brightening a million times in a couple of hours.
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Isbeth
Title: Maryland FanForce
Hospitality Mistress
Registered:
Aug '01
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Date Posted:
10/31/07 10:37am
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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Yeah, this one is kind of special, even it it is hard to see for most folk who don't know here to look.
Lobacca, it is possible that this comet it too far from the sun to have a tail at all. After all it is headed out away from the sun, but Earth is catching up to it the next couple of days.
Information from an ESA website, :
Early November the distance between the comet and Earth will be at its smallest: 1.62 AU.
I got this from the ESA (European Space Agency web site):
Here's the Link
If you check the coordinates on the bottom, the comet is headed away from the sun, but the Earth is getting closer to it. For those of you who need to know, an A.U. is an astronomical unit which is 93 million miles, roughly the distance from Earth to The Sun.
.
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"We are not saints, but seekers", Obi Wan quoting Jedi wisdom in THE DARK RIVAL, J.A. # 2.
"I want to see the color of your eyes in the wind at my side"-Xanatos in Ashes by Lia Jinn
Inside Outer Space, Visit Your Local Planetarium.
Gold 2,Lt.Colonel,EUDF
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VoijaRisa
Registered:
Oct '02
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Date Posted:
10/31/07 5:00pm
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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Sudden surges in brightnesses of comets is nothing exceptional. Typically, this is due to a new surface being exposed and vaporizing quickly. But that doesn't seem to be the case here. I've been watching the comet since the night after it first started brightening and I've been struck the entire time by just how symmetrical the halo is. If it were simply another ejection, you'd expect there to be an asymmetry with more on the side that ejected. The same would be true for an impact.
I last looked at it two nights ago with some pretty decent magnification (~100x) and was completely unable to see any core remaining. The core may just be too small to see with an 8" scope, or it may be gone all together, which could easily explain the jump in brightness.
And Isbeth, the appearance of Holmes isn't anything amazing. All comets don't have much of a tail an are little more than a nucleus surrounded by a thin halo when not close to the sun.
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VoijaRisa
Registered:
Oct '02
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Date Posted:
11/2/07 8:33am
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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Looks like the comet does have a plume and the nucleus is still intact. This picture, (done by an amateur on the LJ Astronomy group) clearly shows the plume and a shock front.
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VadersLaMent
Registered:
Apr '02
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Date Posted:
11/2/07 1:08pm
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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So this is an eruption? I do not know enough about comets to know what would cause such a thing aside from heating as it gets close, gravitational tugs of war, and the inner turmoil made fro both of those things.
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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic--Arthur C. Clarke
Any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God--Michael Shermer
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VoijaRisa
Registered:
Oct '02
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Date Posted:
11/2/07 5:10pm
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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Looks like it's some sort of eruption. Don't know what it's caused by in this instance (impact or sublimation).
If it's the former, that's an exceptionally rare occurrence. The chances of two things colliding like that are rather small.
So my money is going to be on sublimation. Similar to a melting snowball, in which as the water melts, the dirt remains and piles up on the outside, the same happens with comets. Ices sublimate and dust remains. If an area can sublimate quickly enough, removing some of the dust, it can conceivably expose a larger area and there can be a sort of chain reaction where a large amount is ejected at once.
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hankpac
Registered:
Nov '07
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Date Posted:
11/5/07 10:19am
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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Most people forget about Tidal forces as a factor in the evolution of a comet.
The comet is a rather loosely conglomerated collection of rock and ice, all bunched up (the Rocky Snowball allusion is pretty accurate), but with minimal adhesion or gravity. the forces of gravity from larger wells such as jupiter and the sun causes lots of strains in and on the comet as it passes. Think of a sock full of marbles suck together with honey. it'll stick together but it will also shift, and if you swing it hard enough it will experience a catastrohic collapse.
BTW, it is headed OUT right now.
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VoijaRisa
Registered:
Oct '02
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Date Posted:
11/8/07 2:44pm
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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How cute. The n00b tells the astronomer how a comet works.
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VadersLaMent
Registered:
Apr '02
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Date Posted:
11/8/07 5:05pm
Subject:
RE: Comet Holmes: Any Idea On What Made it So Bright?
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I think he was just speaking in general, let's not throw dirty snowballs. 
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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic--Arthur C. Clarke
Any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God--Michael Shermer
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