Early this month, researchers at the Hubble space telescope trained their vision on the 17P Holmes comet earlier, which has delighted amateur and professional astronomers with a brilliant and wholly unexpected flare-up.
The Hubble pictures, now released, have helped shed a little light on what's actually happening to the comet. But for my money, the best pics are still coming in from elsewhere, such as the one included below the fold here, taken by astrophotographer Alan Dyer in Alberta, Canada.
Hubble's crystal vision is somewhat hampered by the same phenomenon that's making the comet so bright – the shroud of dust around it that is reflecting sunlight. However, the telescope was able to see an apparent trio of dust "spurs" being ejected from the comet on Oct. 29, and a new outburst on Oct. 31.
It's too far away, and too dust-choked to tell whether any large pieces have broken off as separate comet fragments, the researchers said. Ground-based photos had earlier shown a large, symmetrical cloud of dust offset from the comet's nucleus, leading to speculation that such fragmentation was taking place.
Earlier Hubble observations of Holmes in 1999 let astronomers see a nucleus that's about 2.1 miles in diameter, about the length of New
York's Central Park, they said.
Below: Shells of material surround Holmes' core. Picture taken by Canadian astrophotographer Alan Dyer, on Nov. 1, with a 105mm apochromatic refractor at f/5 with a Canon 20Da camera at ISO400.(Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Dyer)
Below: A series of Hubble photographs, taken on Oct. 29, Oct. 31, and Nov. 4. (Credit: NASA, ESA and H. Weaver (Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Lab))
Hubble Zooms In on Heart of Mystery Comet [Hubble press release]
(Top image: 17P Holmes, as seen by Hubble on Nov. 4. Credit: NASA, ESA and H. Weaver (Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Lab))
