[meteorite-list] Comet Holmes, always the same........

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2007 16:35:44 -0600
Message-ID: <055001c82d58$05af84e0$4b29e146_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi, Ron,

    Holmes had its first known (or noticed) outburst
in 1892, which was why it was discovered. That outburst
faded, then there was another similarly bright outburst
60 days later, which also faded.

    The next time around, 7 years later, it was pretty dim,
and got dimmer. It got so faint, it was "lost" in 1913, until
the 1960's when it was found again, but only by a big 'scope
trying to "recover" it.

    This year's outburst is the first since 1892-3, 105 years
ago. What it will "do" next is problematic and not really
predictable. Some observers think a big chunk of the
nucleus broke away to cause this outburst, but attempts
to image it, even by the Hubble, have not located the
"chunk."

    Holmes could just "outgas" all its volatiles and go
"dead," yes, but Comet Holmes can easily spare the
material that it's spewing into the coma. The volume
of the nucleus is roughly 20,500,000,000 cubic meters.
If it's all ice (with a density of 1.0), that's 20,500,000,000
tons! If half rock and half ice: 30 billion tons.

    The coma of Comet Holmes, so thin you can see stars
through it, only has a few dozen million tons of ice and dust
in it. Of course, this material is out-flowing, so over the
course of a very long outburst (100 days?), the Comet
might lose from a few hundred million tons up to a billion
tons of itself. That's 1% up to 5% of its mass.

    We could all stand to lose 5% of our mass (and by the
end of the holidays, maybe more). Whatever caused the
1892 outburst, the Comet remained stable for 105 years.
The result of this outburst? Nobody knows. It could go
"dark" for a few centuries, or have a glorious outburst
every seven years at each perihelion passage or something
inbetween.

    It's what makes watching the Universe fun.


Sterling K. Webb
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron" <faceter01 at hotmail.com>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2007 10:06 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Comet Holmes, always the same........


Hi,

I saw the picture of Comet Holmes, listed as 1892. Does it, or will it ever
dissipatate?

Ron


> Hi,
>
> found a photo of Holmes of 1892. Looks the same as today!
>
> http://kuerzer.de/watson1892
>
> 1st picture, down right.
>
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Received on Thu 22 Nov 2007 05:35:44 PM PST