Full Sky Observatory
<p>The gas and dust cloud surrounding <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Holmes" class="extiw" title="en:Comet Holmes">Comet Holmes</a> is expanding at a rate of about 42000km/day. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/faculty/jewitt/holmes.html">[1]</a> This plot simulates the retrograde motion of Comet Holmes over 120 days (60 frames) after the outburst, showing the diameter increase over time. (It will continue to get harder to see visually as its surface brightness falls, but a cloud like this may continue to be visible over the coming weeks and months.)
</p><p>On each frame, yellow dots show the position of the comet in the previous and following 30-days.
</p><p>Contrast to actual photo composite of the comet showing the motion and expansion at <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pane/Holmes/">[2]</a>.
</p>
Orbital elements from <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/0017P.html">[3]</a>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Tomruen" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:User:Tomruen">Tomruen</a> at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:">English Wikipedia</a>
17 November 2007 (original upload date)
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