In fact, the coma is not entirely symmetric. There is clearly a denser
region which is offset from the nucleus. This may be a product of
whatever caused the outburst, or it may be tail structure seen through
the coma- that remains to be seen.
Our imagination is perhaps contaminated by visions of Armageddon (the
movie) like geysers bursting from the surface, but in reality the escape
of gas may be much less violent. It isn't unreasonable to expect it to
obey the rules of diffusion, and produce a substantially spherical zone
of expanding material. It is likely that the nucleus is spinning.
The best argument against a collision is the absurd improbability of TWO
collisions in the last century, since this comet has a history of
outbursts.
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Francis Graham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 12:34 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Comet Holmes
Dear List,
Yes, the clouds finnnallly cleared in the Ohio
Valley. After a week of hearing the pitter patter of
rain on the observatory roof, it cleared and I
screamed aloud: "Now I can see Comet Homes!!!" I
eagerly and excitedly rolled off the roof to the
roll-off-roof observatory and paced the floor, waiting
for darkness. 11:15 AM... 11:20 AM...11:25
AM...Noon...12:05 PM....it seemed like an eternity.
Finally, the terminator swept across me as if it were
a great liberation from the oppressive rule of some
garish solar dictator. I long already had the
telescope circles set, locked, and tracking.
Wowwweee Zoweee! I was not disappointed. What a
beautiful totally symmetric outburst! What a wonderful
comet!
Sterling Webb's post is food for thought. Old
periodic comets evaporate and their crusts get covered
with a silicate carbonaceous crust, like melting ice
on a roadside in spring. When pressure builds up and
vapor-dust eruptions occur, it should fountain, like
the wonderful beautiful megafountains of Hale-Bopp.
But Comet Holmes?!? Noooooo. Something very bizarre
is at work. There was no specific locality, the coma
was symmetric.Is it an impact? Even a Carnacas-sized
whallop on a small crusty periodic comet nucleus would
do for a brightening; I suspect this (if an impact)
was a bit larger. Which, renders it improbable. It's
like a meteor hitting an area the size of Washington
DC.
But maybe that's what it is. After all, the
fictional detective Charlie Chan once said, "Strange
events often permit themselves the luxury of having
occurred." Which sums up this outburst to a T.
I toyed with the idea of the intervening Earth-Moon
system acting as a gravitational focuser, from 1 AU to
1.3 AU, from sun-directed meteors, but the flux would
not be much higher than the sporadic background.
Francis Graham
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