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Holmes Comet Coma Grows Bigger Than The Sun
coondoggie passed us a NetworkWorld article, as he does, noting that there is now an object in our solar system bigger than Sol. The Holmes comet has a huge coma, with a diameter scientists are now calculating to be larger than our own middle-sized star. "Scientists don't seem to have a guess as to how big it will ultimately become. The Holmes 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. The sun's diameter, stated differently by various sources, is about 864,900 miles (1.392 million kilometers)."
Sitnalta's point is especially true when you consider how close to nothing a comet's coma really is. The closest thing to "nothing" we can manage on Earth still has a lot more stuff in it than the coma of a comet.
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
Exactly. The sun's atmosphere also extends well past the known solar system, and Wikipedia tells me that the heliospheric current sheet is the largest structure in the solar system.
the larger it gets, the less dense it is, so it may not appear like much when it finally gets eaten by that other star. However, if it has some flammable gases or something cool, we may see a show after all.
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Unfortunately, Holmes doesn't even make it inside the orbit of Mars.
Still amazing, though. I think it's incredible that after all this time, I can still see it in-city with the naked eye, a faint blur like someone took a pencil eraser to a star, growing ever-closer to Mirfak. And it's so well situated for evening viewing these days, too.
And I'd like to be the king of all Londinium and wear a shiny hat.
This just crossed my mind -
Why not make a satellite hitch ride on one of these comets to the outer reaches of the solar system. Assuming they go there once every round, even hitching Halley's comet will get us further than Pioneer 1&2 have been in a shorter time, without wasting any precious fuel.
Lesser energy wasted means more energy available to scientific equipments onboard! So they can possibly carry many more equipments and more powerful transmitters.
Or hell, just hitch a ride on one of these for pretty much anywhere in the solar system. No need to wait 7 yrs to reach Saturn. Hitching a ride on one of these could get us there in months. They move *really* fast!
- mritunjai
I know you guys are right and all, but this is more of a fun factoid than some sort of scientific claim. Yeah, the sun is bigger, and has magnetic fields and winds and has tons more mass and everything, but as an amateur astronomer (very amateur), I still find it fascinating just how large the thing has become since exploding only a few weeks ago. That it's larger than the "visible" sun is, to me, just wild -- even if it is nothing but a huge bubble with very little substance.
It's not a matter of "more important", just that astrophysics and stargazing are two different things. The pulsar with planets is cool, even if we can't look up and see it. But Holmes has been hyped for its visual impact, which I'd say is .. lacking.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
In any language used by creatures living on planets, there will be a word for 'sun.'
It seems there (probably) exist 'ejected' planets which could sustain life.
http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/070910_sunless-planets.htm
Apart from that, it is likely to be difficult to make predictions with regard to language (Living without Numbers or Time).
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
And 'we' do not call our sun, 'the sun,' except in English.
By the way, the naming convention of "first in class" is also used in shipbuilding. There is a USS Nimitz, and, then, there is a Nimitz class carrier. The British came up with the first in class naval tradition and we copied it. For example, during World War II, they had the King George V, and the King George V class battleship.
So, to call the Sun a sun and the Moon the moon is entirely accurate and consistent with the human tradition. Certainly, if a bunch of drunken sailors can handle these names, and have for hundreds of years, would it be so difficult for astronomers to pick it up!
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