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Comet Unexpectedly Brightens a Millionfold
swordgeek writes "Comet 17P/Holmes, a relatively obscure and (until a few days ago) dim object, has suddenly flared to be literally a million times brighter, going from magnitude 18 to 2.8. It is just outside of the constellation Perseus, which puts it high in the sky and ideal for viewing at this time of year. The comet still appears starlike even in binoculars but should grow to several arcminutes across over the next few nights. The comet is now readily visible to the naked eye. This is a completely unexpected once-in-a-lifetime event, so get out your finest optics (even if it's just your eyes) and go comet watching!"
i don't think we've seen a really big bright comet in how long? hasn't it been decades, or centuries even? anywhere in the world?
i mean a really big bright one that eats the whole sky
we need a big bright comet because history teaches us that warring factions oftentimes stop their fighting and lay down their arms when shocked at the sight
so we need a big bright comet pronto
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
When the clouds clear up, and the rain stops.
Oh, right, UK.
Never.
According to SpaceWeather.com, not only did the comet brighten unexpectedly, it "... has no tail, [and] a remarkable golden color ...". Unless the geometry of the sun-earth-comet trio is such that the tail is pointing directly away from the earth, you'd think there'd be a massive tail given the million-fold increase in brightness.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
The comet is now readily visible to the naked eye.
WARNING
Do not look into the comet with your remaining eye.
liqbase
Looking at the last link in the summary I think we ought to be able to see it
Look for Cassiopeia ( a big and fairly obvious W or M in the sky) and track your eyes downward from it. It's going to be just down to the left of the bright star Mirfak in Perseus.
I wonder what the reason for the brightening is? Maybe it hit Voyager.
Well, the only star it's flying near is the big yellow one you see in the daytime. I haven't seen anything about the reason it got brighter, but my guess would be it has an icy core that has been gradually heating internally as it orbited closer to the sun, until suddenly it burst out as steam. If that's the case, maybe it'll get brighter as it gets closer and warmer... or maybe the lid's been taken off the pot and after a day of spewing a ton of stored-up H2O now it'll settle down and get dimmer.
(Like a balloon when something bad happens!)
This is not an eclipse, so you should be able to watch it from the UK, clouds permitting. If you are worried about latitude, you can check the low-cost flights to Spain and come to watch it from here over the weekend. I think you can see Perseus from the UK, anyway.
Magic Comet Ride
(Parody of Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf)
I like to dream
Yes, yes
About flying around in a space machine
When a big blue ball appears in the night
Our leader says that the time is right
Hale Bopp draws near
Clean the house and pack that gear
Well, UFO is right behind
Why don't you come with me, boys and girls
On a magic comet ride
Well, UFO's got a extra seat
Why don't you take a trek with me?
Beam us up, we'll visit ET
Grab a ride, girl
Say good bye, world
Let Hale Bopp take you away
Last night I packed a travel sack
And said goodbye on video tape
Before the ship could come for me
Some witch doctor had to take my nuts away
I donned a gown
Brand new shoes from Niketown
Well, you won't know if you stay behind
Why don't you come with me, cyber geek
On a magic comet ride
We'll follow Doe and you will see
Why don't you go to sleep with me?
This plastic bag will set you free
Say goodbye, world
Log your last URL
Let the ship take you away
Well, UFO is right behind
Why don't you come with me, boys and girls
On a magic comet ride
Well, UFO's got an extra seat
Why don't you take a trek with me?
Beam us up, we'll visit ET (Marcus Tee)
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Actually, Latitude+time-of-year will make a difference.
But given that the UK and US are on the same hemisphere, that shouldn't be a problem, and if it is... Train + Rome...
34486853790
Connection too slow for X forwarding? Try "ssh -CX user@host"
Where's the Argo/Yamato? Tell 'em to power up the Wave Motion Gun to deal with this intergalatic menace!
I didn't think the house band in Hell would play this badly.
Magnitude is a log scale, with brighter objects having lower magnitudes. Like so much in astronomy, the reason is historical: when the first guy (Greek, probably) decided to categorize stars by brightness he said the brightest stars should be first magnitude, the next brightest second, and so on. Because of the nature of the human eye, the scale is logarithmic. Objects brighter than what this guy considered first magnitude thus have a magnitude of less than one, or even less than zero.
The numbers are funny (rather than -1, 0, 1, 2) because they're giving you sample objects so you can get an idea about the range of the scale.
Hope that helped!
...high in the sky and ideal for viewing at this time of year.
On what part of the planet? Northern hemosphere or southern? The Americas or Asia? What time of night (or day)?
In 1974, the American media were excitedly predicting a very bright comet named Kahoutek, and then when it appeared wrote how dissapointing the show was, that it wasn't even visible.
I was in Thailand that year, Kahoutek drowned out all the stars in half the sky there.
Some of you folks need to learn that the internet is a global phenomena and not restricted to your own country. Is this thing visible in my country (US)? What part of the sky, and what time? If I can see it, people in Australia can't.
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
This comet orbits between 2.2 and 5.2 AU and it's last closest approach to the Sun was in May, 2007: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17P/Holmes. An AU is the average distance between the Sun and the Earth.
Comet crusts, the dark stuff that is left over after the ice sublimates, are thought to conduct heat slowly. One theory on why we see outbursts as comets move away from the Sun, as this one is doing, is that the warming pulse from the closest approach takes time to sink down to a reservior of carbon monoxide gas which then sublimate internally and blows off fairly large chunks of the comet. Another theory is that the same thermal pulse reaches a reservior of amorphous water ice, which is more common in space than crystalline ice and thus might be present in comets since their formation. When amorphous ice is warmed, it will become crystalline and release energy because the ordered state of crystaline ice is a lower energy state. This can lead to a chain reaction of further crystallization and energy release that could lead to enough warming to cause sublimation in the interior and then do the same kind of thing as in the carbon monoxide scenario.
--
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You think that's unexpected?
Wait until it suddenly changes direction!
Now thatwill be unexpected!
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
What about in the UK? Where would I need to look to see this thing?
Regardless of country - You would need to look up.
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
here. There was no visible tail, just a fuzzy circle.
So that's why it's going to be cloudy over my area for the foreseeable future?
Never fails.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Does anyone have any idea why this comet has suddenly got so much brighter?
Global warming.
Obviously a ship starting its deceleration burn.
Invalid Checksum. Retrying.
The /. title "Comet Unexpectedly Brightens a Millionfold" demonstrates a common mistake.
Each "fold" means a doubling, or 2 to the n'th power. For example, three-fold is 8-times. Take a piece of paper and fold it three times- unfold it and count the number of rectangles outlined by the creases. This is where the expression actually came from...
People incorrectly use the "fold" term because they think it sounds more intelligent, but they demonstrate their ignorance by misusing it.
A brighting of 2 to the millionth power would be so massive that we and our entire solar system would be almost instantly vaporized and blown away by the photons striking us.
ron
If the comet reaches Earth it is a WMD.
Yes, but the sky will be in a different place above you depending on latitude.
I am at 35.778889 N and the sky is up. Can you post your latitude and sky direction for comparison?I'm slightly appalled. /. readers, check my grammar and links, and then click submit. Lo and behold, it gets accepted. Cool!
/. editors: If you're going to actually edit submissions (and why start now, after ignoring fundamental grammatical errors and duplicate stories for a decade?) then get it right!
I write up what I consider to be an interesting story for
Then I read what I supposedly wrote, and find that words have been put in my mouth. Specifically:
"The comet still appears starlike even in binoculars but should grow to several arcminutes across over the next few nights. "
I did NOT write that. I didn't suggest it. The comet does NOT appear starlike in binoculars at all--it's quite a clear extended disk. ONE person quoted in Sky & Telescope believes that it will expand to several arcminutes in size, but that's strictly conjecture.
Furthermore, I didn't use the word "millionfold" in my subject line. That was kdawson again.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Just to be clear on something, I never used the word millionfold in my submission. That was kdawson editing my post for his own glory.
Incidentally, the term has been used both ways, and has etymologically distinct roots, so millionfold meaning 'a million times' is valid.
I can't link directly to it, at the sixth entry (-fold) at Miriam Webster's.
Nonetheless, it wasn't my word. Neither was the claim that the comet is 'starlike in binoculars.'
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Johnny Rico: I'm from Buenos Aires, and I say kill 'em all!
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
Nope. This comet made its closest approach to the sun back in May. It's now moving away from the sun. It also follows a relatively circular orbit compared to most bright comets, so significant changes in brightness are unexpected.
However, there may have been an unusually large pocket of vapor that form some reason burst out at this point (out-gassing), or it might have been hit by a smaller object.