The amazing outbursting comet (17P/Holmes) is still up there... and we still haven't seen it for ourselves. It has apparently gotten slightly fainter in the last week or so, but it's still almost as bright as the stars of the Big Dipper. The coma has gotten so large that it's very obvious to the naked eye (or so I hear!). Apparently, the physical diameter is actually larger than the planet Jupiter at this point. The outer coma glows green, due to fluorescence from the gases C2 (molecular carbon) and CN (cyanide). This is cool because it means the comet is glowing on its own (not just reflecting sunlight), but this can't be seen with the eye (only in pictures). What's also weird about this comet is that it still doesn't have a tail, despite this big cloud of gas and dust that forms the coma. The solar wind should be pushing that dust out into a tail... but as far as I can tell, that tail should be hidden behind the comet, from our perspective.
2 comments:
We think we have seen it the end of last week but it has been cloudy at night since then. We will let you know next time it is spotted. We have a perfect view from our back deck, if we are looking at the right thing! Bobbie
We saw it at the Villa tonight. It's huge! It's so big and bright, it looks artifical. Pretty cool, though.
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