Comet Holmes gains brightness, now looks brighter than Jupiter

William Atkins
Tuesday, 30 October 2007 19:07

Science - Space

After a million-times increase in brightness over a two-day period beginning on October 24, 2007, Comet 17P/Holmes has now increased its luminosity even more, looking brighter than the planet Jupiter.

See an interesting picture of it at: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071026.html.

Looking in the northeastern night sky in the direction of the constellation Perseus, skygazers will see the comet with the naked eye. With binoculars or telescopes, the view will be even more dramatic.

An earlier description of Comet Holmes appears at the earlier iTWire article “Comet 71P/Holmes brightens a million times: See it in your local night sky”.

Earlier during its increase in brightness, Comet Holmes did not show a tail, which is normally seen with comets. It was seen as a spherical object, looking more like a planet than a comet.

However, now the comet is showing faint signs of a tail off to its upper right side as viewers look at it from Earth. More than likely, the nucleus of Comet Holmes expelled out a large cloud of dust, whose particles are now being brightened by light from the Sun.

Sky & Telescope magazine provides some good pictures to show viewers where to look in the night sky: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/10862521.html.

Historical background on the comet appears at: http://cometography.com/pcomets/017p.html.