10-27-2007, 09:20 PM
IT is one of the strangest things to illuminate the night sky and may be about to make history.
Comet Holmes - a ball of frozen matter that orbits the sun every seven years - has intensified in brightness one million times since Wednesday night. It is now visible with the naked eye, even from well-lit city areas.
What the comet will do next is anyone's guess.
If the brightness continues at this rate, Comet Holmes will soon become the brightest comet in history.
Or the display might be over by observation time tonight - but no one really knows.
Queensland astronomer Peter Marples said: "It may well be that this comet has brightened more rapidly than any other.
"It has made the constellation Perseus look very different with a 'new star'.
"Imagine what the Southern Cross would look like if it had something similar happen."
The phenomenon is considered strange enough to have excited internet comment and it has even earned itself an entry on the internet public information site Wikipedia.
Comet Holmes may be visible from Queensland tonight between 11.30pm and 2.30am.
It will be under the full moon in the northern sky quite close to the horizon, below the word Perseus on the pictured sky chart.
The moon will change its position each night but the comet will be roughly in the same area for the next week.
This area of the sky is known as the constellation Perseus.
The intense brightening may be caused by the ejection of large amounts of gas and small particles, or perhaps the comet is beginning to break apart.
Binoculars and a sky chart will assist.
Holmes is a periodic comet first discovered by Edwin Holmes in 1892.
It doesn't fit the typical image of a comet as it doesn't have a tail, although the beginnings of a tail formation are suspected.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0...62,00.html
Comet Holmes - a ball of frozen matter that orbits the sun every seven years - has intensified in brightness one million times since Wednesday night. It is now visible with the naked eye, even from well-lit city areas.
What the comet will do next is anyone's guess.
If the brightness continues at this rate, Comet Holmes will soon become the brightest comet in history.
Or the display might be over by observation time tonight - but no one really knows.
Queensland astronomer Peter Marples said: "It may well be that this comet has brightened more rapidly than any other.
"It has made the constellation Perseus look very different with a 'new star'.
"Imagine what the Southern Cross would look like if it had something similar happen."
The phenomenon is considered strange enough to have excited internet comment and it has even earned itself an entry on the internet public information site Wikipedia.
Comet Holmes may be visible from Queensland tonight between 11.30pm and 2.30am.
It will be under the full moon in the northern sky quite close to the horizon, below the word Perseus on the pictured sky chart.
The moon will change its position each night but the comet will be roughly in the same area for the next week.
This area of the sky is known as the constellation Perseus.
The intense brightening may be caused by the ejection of large amounts of gas and small particles, or perhaps the comet is beginning to break apart.
Binoculars and a sky chart will assist.
Holmes is a periodic comet first discovered by Edwin Holmes in 1892.
It doesn't fit the typical image of a comet as it doesn't have a tail, although the beginnings of a tail formation are suspected.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0...62,00.html
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