This area will cover relevant news of the threat to the planet from Near Earth Objects (NEOs) including concepts and designs for mitigation. All opinions are those of the author.

15 November 2007

Article: "Incredible Comet [Comet 17P Holmes] Bigger than the Sun"



From the article...

A comet that has delighted backyard astronomers in recent weeks after an unexpected eruption has now grown larger than the sun...The sun remains by far the most massive object in the solar system, with an extended influence of particles that reaches all the planets. But the comparatively tiny Comet Holmes has released so much gas and dust that its extended atmosphere, or coma, appears larger than the diameter of the sun in a new image..."It continues to expand and is now the largest single object in the solar system," according to astronomers at the University of Hawaii.

"The coma's diameter on Nov. 9 was 869,900 miles (1.4 million kilometers), based on measurements by Rachel Stevenson, Jan Kleyna and Pedro Lacerda of the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. They used observations from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. The sun's diameter, stated differently by various sources and usually rounded to the nearest 100, is about 864,900 miles (1.392 million kilometers)."

Incredible Comet Bigger than the Sun
Robert Roy Britt
Space.com
15 November 2007

Link: Article
Posted by A.C. Charania at 09:19

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