Wolfram Demonstrations Project

12,000+ Open Interactive Demonstrations
Powered by Notebook Technology »

Enigmatic Comet Holmes

Initializing live version
Download to Desktop

Requires a Wolfram Notebook System

Interact on desktop, mobile and cloud with the free Wolfram Player or other Wolfram Language products.

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.

[more]

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

[less]

Contributed by: Jeff Bryant (March 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

Snapshots

Details

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.

Embed Code

Take advantage of the Wolfram Notebook Emebedder for the recommended user experience.

Related Demonstrations More by Author
Browse all topics
Feedback (field required)
Email (field required) Name
Occupation Organization
Note: Your message & contact information may be shared with the author of any specific Demonstration for which you give feedback.
Send