New discovery of the mysterious comet 17P / Holmes

With a diameter of about 2.7 million km including dust and gas, comet 17P / Holmes seems to be " bulging " and within a week has twice the diameter of the Sun (diameter 1, 39 million km).

Not only that, the star named after this British astronomer Edwin Holmes is also shining abnormally, becoming one of the largest and brightest stars in the sky, visible to the naked eye. night.

This phenomenon has become the focus of world astronomers in the past few weeks, but so far scientists have not explained the cause.

The VNA correspondent in Berlin (Germany) quoted Dr. Maciej Mikolajewski of the Torun Astronomical Center (Poland) as saying that many scientists consider the comet 17P / Holmes to " expand " and have an unusual brightness Because this star has moved into a certain planet and this is a very rare phenomenon in astronomy.

(Photo: Sstronomia.pl)

Typically, comets increase in magnitude and brightness as they get closer to the Sun, and they often become larger when absorbed by the Sun and their tails can last thousands of kilometers. . Meanwhile, comet 17P / Holmes doubled in diameter and brighter when it was very far from the Sun, so it could rule out the cause of the Sun's impact.

Comet 17P / Holmes was discovered visually by astronomer Edwin Holmes in 1892. On November 7, the star whose cycle revolves around the Sun for 7 years has begun to move away from Earth and expected to return in 2014.

(Photo: Sstronomia.pl)