The dust trail from a comet eruption will be visible in the sky this summer.
The comet 17P/Holmes, which briefly became the largest object in the solar system in 2007, will give the night show. The coma of the comet had a larger diameter than the sun.
The particles given off in this record-breaking eruption may have dispersed into space.
The new Herculid shower has bright fireballs but no meteorite storm.
A new model of the comet's dust trail shows that it has not stopped. The particles left behind by the outburst are visible from the southern hemisphere.
The dust trail will be visible from the Northern Hemisphere in the year 2022.
According to the study lead author, telescopes are so good that any relatively modest system will be able to do it.
There are bumps on Hale-Bopp from its pedestal.
The comet is near Mars and Jupiter. It was discovered by an English astronomer in 1892, when it flared with an eruption that caught his eye. The 2007 eruption was larger than the previous one.
"Other comets in similar circles around the sun don't produce this kind of large periodic outbursts, so the 17P/Holmes itself is probably special," Markku Nissinen wrote in an email to Live Science.
When ice in the comet body transitions from a disorganized arrangement to a structured arrangement, there can be dramatic spurts. Gas from within the ice creates pressure on the comet's surface. The result is an eruption. It's "remarkable" that this happens without blowing the comet to pieces.
The researchers modeled the physics of the dust trail in order to understand how it formed.
Combining observations from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the researchers traced the path of the dust trail over time. Due to the effects of gravity and solar wind, the particles sort themselves by size as they travel, arriving at the two points in their circle in the order of medium, large, and small. There are two bulges of dust on either side and a narrowed zone of dust in the middle, a relic of the first spherical burst of dust from the comet body.
The tiny particles reflect the light of the sun in a way that makes them visible in the night sky. The trail can be seen from the Northern Hemisphere in the last two years, but its brightness varies depending on how the particles catch the sun. The trail has already been reported by an amateur astronomer in Finland who took photos of the trail in February and March. Once the particles come out of the sun's glare, other Northern Hemisphere watchers will be able to see the trail. There is a convergence point in the constellation.
Calculating the dust trail could be used to study comets. A map of the comet's location would make it easier for scientists to collect material from the comet. In order to find the dust from the original 1892 eruption, she and her colleagues are going to model the dust trail.
It's not possible to say when the comet will erupt again. In 1893 and 1892, 17P/Holmes let off back-to-back eruptions. The comet will make its closest appearance to the sun on January 31,28.
The original publication was on Live Science.
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