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Holmes Comet Coma Grows Bigger Than The Sun

Posted by Zonk on from the even-when-it's-out-of-sight-the-sun-shines-night-and-day dept.

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)."

1 of 245 comments (clear)

  1. Misleading by shafty023 · · Score: 0, Troll

    The title of this story is very misleading. The comet is not larger than our sun. It is wider in diameter, not in radius. Sure that's an impressive thing but I'd rather not hear about it unless it's radius grows larger than the sun. In the meantime, marvel over a comet with a long tail of crap