Enigmatic Comet Holmes

On October 24, 2007, a fairly inconspicuous comet known as 17P/Holmes that was fainter than Pluto suddenly brightened to be easily visible to the naked eye and nearly as bright as Algol, the brightest star in Perseus.

The appearance of a comet varies when viewed from Earth. Use the controls to see how Comet Holmes looks through a telescope.

Contributed by: Jeff Bryant

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Comet 17P/Holmes has had a history of producing outbursts of activity; the exact cause is still unknown. Regardless of the cause, the result is that the coma of the comet expands as fresh dust is released from the comet nucleus. Snapshot 1 shows a large coma, a short tail, and an orientation that closely matches that of the comet when it underwent its most recent outburst.

Orbital Elements (ScienceWorld)

"Enigmatic Comet Holmes" from The Wolfram Demonstrations Project
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/EnigmaticCometHolmes/

Contributed by: Jeff Bryant

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