The biggest object in our solar system...

Laurie Street — 11/15/2007 9:23:24 PM (archived)

... is not the sun.

At least not right now.

GIANT COMET: University of Hawaii astronomers have measured the diameter of Comet 17P/Holmes: 1.4 million kilometers. This makes the exploding comet bigger than the sun and now the largest object in the solar system. Not surprisingly, the comet is visible to the naked eye; with only a backyard telescope you can watch its gigantic debris cloud expand from night to night. Nov. 19th is an especially good night to look: Comet Holmes will glide by Mirfak, the brightest star in the constellation Perseus, and appear to swallow it. Visit http://spaceweather.com for a sky map and images.

SpaceWeather (they have a great, free e-mail news service, by the way)

The whole thread (11 posts)

The biggest object in our solar system... - Laurie Street - 11/15/2007 9:23:24 PM
- ..is maybe not the sun or Comet Holmes... - Doug Ellison - 11/16/2007 9:43:06 AM
  - Heliopause - nick hoffman - 11/27/2007 1:54:37 AM
- Hmm. Zero sunspots, too. - TB - 11/15/2007 11:16:10 PM
  - The sun is in its calm cycle.....Not much to see through the PST (n/t) - Raoul - 11/16/2007 6:26:49 PM
    - But that picture is an earlier sun with a huge eruption! (n/t) - Raoul - 11/16/2007 6:32:25 PM
- Thought this was about me getting fatter again... (n/t) - TB - 11/15/2007 10:56:40 PM
  - BTW, no fair! - TB - 11/15/2007 11:07:14 PM
- Wow that's cool! (n/t) - Buck Galaxy - 11/15/2007 10:32:13 PM
  - re: Wow that's cool! - Sure IS. Thanks, L.S.! (n/t) - Marcia - 11/15/2007 10:59:09 PM
    - Sailing off into the sunset - maybe - Socrates II - 11/26/2007 9:10:21 PM

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