Starship Asterisk*

You’re welcome! I had the fortune (as part of an engineering team) to work support at JPL for a couple of months integrating an infrared imaging system into a multi-mission polar orbiter in the late 80’s… fun times! One of the many interesting things about JPL involves a piece of punctuation in their campus museum. Anyway, I rattle on…

Maybe Holmes will warrant an intercept next time around? It is a strange beast.

[quote="emc"]What caused Comet Holmes to greatly brighten?

Is this just a reaction to its proximity to the sun?

What do the sudden outbursts indicate?

[url]http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=Holmes&orb=1[/url][/quote]
First off...thanks for the wonderful URL site!

Holmes is normally very sedate; then suddenly seemed to go a little Wild:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040319.html

For 11 months prior to it's October 2007 outburst Holmes was within 2.4 AU of the sun which should have heated it up to an ambient temperature of ~158ºK [i.e., earth's ambient temperature of 250ºK / sqrt(2.4)]. At 158ºK the vapor pressure of CO2 is about 1/20th of an atmosphere. If Holmes was in rapid rotation then this CO2 evaporation might have been significant to weaken a dumbbell shaped comet nucleus to the point where it catastrophically broke in two.

Originally I thought that Holmes might have run into a small asteroid but your
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=Holmes&orb=1
shows that it was well above the ecliptic back in October of 2007.

What caused Comet Holmes to greatly brighten?

Is this just a reaction to its proximity to the sun?

What do the sudden outbursts indicate?

[url]http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=Holmes&orb=1[/url]

Should probably be in the "Cafe", , , 8)

Just kidding, , , grins

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080205.html
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[b]Looking through a London TELEscope : Nov., 1892[/b]
----------------------------------------------------------------
http://cometography.com/pcomets/017p.html
.
<<Edwin Holmes (London, England) was a regular observer of the Andromeda
galaxy (M31), so he knew the region very well. On the evening of 1892
November 6, with skies that were not very favorable, he finished
making a few observations of Jupiter and some double stars with his
32-cm reflector, and then decided to take a quick look at the faint
companions of µ Andromedae and the nearby galaxy M31 before quitting
for the night. Upon turning the reflector toward that region, he saw
what he thought was M31 enter the field of the finder, but when he
looked through the eyepiece he saw something different. Holmes said
he "called out involuntarily, 'What is the matter? There is something
[b]*STRANGE*[/b] here.' My wife heard me and thought something had
happened to the instrument and came to see." The object in the field
of Holmes' telescope was a comet with a coma about 5 arc minutes
across and with a bright nucleus. Kidd immediately expressed
some skepticism about Holmes' find because of its nearness to M31;
however, on November 7, Kidd spotted the comet with the naked eye.>>
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[b]Looking at a London TELEgram : Mar., 1892[/b]
-----------------------------------------------------------------
. The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge
.
I find it recorded in my notebook that it was a bleak and windy
day towards the end of March in the year 1892. Holmes had
received a TELEgram while we sat at our lunch, and he had
scribbled a reply. He made no remark, but the matter remained in
his thoughts, for he stood in front of the fire afterwards with a
thoughtful face, smoking his pipe, and casting an occasional
glance at the message. Suddenly he turned upon me with a
mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
.
"I suppose, Watson, we must look upon you as [b]a man of letters[/b],"
said he. "How do you define the word 'grotesque'?"
.
_____ "[b]*STRANGE*[/b]--remarkable," I suggested.
--------------------------------------------------------
[b]*HOLMES* : "a man of letters"[/b] :wink:
...........................................
[list][b](H)amlet _____ (H)uron
(O)thello _____ (O)ntario
(L)ear _______ ------------
(M)acbeth ____ (M)ichigan
(E)dwin ______ (E)rie
(S)herlock ____ (S)uperior[/b][/list]