Holme’s Comet Bigger Than Our Sun?

November 16th, 2007

The sun is by far the most massive object in our solar system, but Comet Holmes has recently been viewed as releasing so much gas that now its extended atmosphere, or coma, is larger than the diameter of the sun.

“It continues to expand and is now the largest single object in the solar system,” according to astronomers at the University of Hawaii.

According to Space.com you can see this object with the naked eye in the sky right now.

“Right now, in a dark sky it appears as a very noticeable circular cloud,” said Joe Rao, SPACE.com’s Skywatching Columnist.

What does this mean to us? Is it a problem? Honestly I doubt it, but I haven’t read anything that has analyzed its effect to us other than that the cloud is so massive, and distant it prevents Hubble from viewing its nucleus. A small telescope will allow you to see the fuzzy coma, and the comet lacks a long tail like many of the more infamous comets we have observed. According to some of the photos it appears to have a bow-tie sort of shape. If you have a good set up and some fiber cable with a camera this may be an interesting video to set up.

Here is a comparison illustration as it relates to the sun with a tiny Saturn image thrown in to show the scale of this object: