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Hubble fails to pry open Comet Holmes mystery

Posted Nov 19, 2007 at 02:39PM by Isaac C. Listed in: Celestial Bodies Tags: Mars, Jupiter, constellation, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Telescope
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Comet Holmes - Image 1


Back in 1999, Comet Holmes was too small for the Hubble telescope to measure. One night the comet suddenly brightened over a million-fold in a single day, with a debris cloud measuring 1.4 million kilometers, only slightly larger than our own sun.

Comet Holmes lies between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. It was considered a "nonentitiy" before, but on October 24, it grew bright enough to cause amateur astronomers to report that there's a new "star" in the sky, in the constellation of Perseus.

What caused this sudden eruption of dust and light? The images from Hubble (the image above) doesn't show any clear reason. Images taken from Earth suggest that a large piece of the comet broke off. Maybe something else hit it and caused it to split, like in Final Fantasy VII, Armageddon and Deep Impact?

However, Hubble can't confirm this theory either because it can't find the piece that broke off, and won't be able to unless it was the size of the actual comet. For now, the secrets of Comet Holmes must remain a secret.

[Via Ars Technica] Permalink  |   Email this  |   Linking Blogs   |   Digg It!

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