Friday, November 2, 2007

APOD 2.2


Whats happening to Holmes? Not Sherlock, mind you, but the comet that has recently gone from magnitude 17 to magnitude 3. When once you needed a really good telescope to spot it, it is now visible to the naked eye. What caused the gigantic increase in brightness? Maybe a release of gas and the sun reflecting off it. Or part of the comet's nucleus broke off, fissioning itself it seems. Apparently its going to remain in the northern sky for another two years, allowing us to study it possibly without a telescope for a while.

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