Holmes way bigger than Charon

7 November 2007 in Fun | 5 comments

Bigger even than Jupiter.

Comet Holmes is exploding and its coma, a cloud of gas and dust illuminated by the sun, has grown to be bigger than the planet Jupiter.

Meanwhile Pluto’s moon Charon is a mere 1,210 kilometers across.

5 comments

  1. John Bolch’s avatar

    John Bolch on 7 November 2007 at 12:39 pm

    I think a certain QC may point out that Charon will still be here long after the comet has disappeared from view!

  2. Nick Holmes’s avatar

    Nick Holmes on 7 November 2007 at 3:58 pm

    Actually, Holmes will not disappear. Last exploded (when discovered) in 1892. So, let me see, at least 45,000 bottles of Rioja later will Charon still be there like Holmes?

  3. Contact’s avatar

    Contact on 7 November 2007 at 9:27 pm

    Let me see if I’ve got this right.

    Holmes has very intermittent and unexpected flashes of brilliance, due to spectacular moments of self destruction, while Charon’s orbit is ‘slightly eccentric’ and it is not made of the same material as the dwarf planet that it orbits.

    Shome mishtake, surely

  4. John Bolch’s avatar

    John Bolch on 8 November 2007 at 4:02 pm

    No, it won’t disappear, but will disappear from view, once it’s burnt out. Still, at least there may be periodic ‘flashes of brilliance’ along the way! As for Charon, you may be ‘slightly eccentric’, but you’ll always be visible, at least with a powerful telescope!

    All of which is more than can be said for (most of) the rest of us…

  5. Charon QC’s avatar

    Charon QC on 9 November 2007 at 11:29 am

    It is often said that I am in orbit!…

    I looked Charon up on Wikipedia after getting some hits from Wikipedia… I am there….

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