Thread: Holmes expands
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Old 29-October-2007, 10:46 PM
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dhd40 dhd40 is offline
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Originally Posted by Tucson_Tim View Post
Nice progression. I've been curious if it will develop a tail but I guess it's too far from the sun???
I was also wondering about this. Possible explanation:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/obser.../10775326.html

Quote:
Future prospects. The comet is likely to stay bright for many days or weeks. The yellow color is dust reflecting sunlight, as confirmed by the spectra that have been taken. Dust is what keeps a comet bright — as opposed to gas (comet gas is green and blue), which blows away quickly in the solar wind. This comet won't fade out soon.

Any tail will probably be short and stubby when, or if, it forms. The tail should be pointing nearly away from us in space — we're looking down its length — since the comet is nearly on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun. From the comet's viewpoint, the Earth and Sun are only about 15° apart, and this phase angle will stay small for many months. So we'll keep looking down the tail.
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