Comet Holmes (17P) dust cloud

Comet Holmes underwent an explosive brightening in October 2007 becoming an easy naked eye object for several weeks. The dust and meteoroid cloud is evolving due to radiation pressure, solar wind, and gravitational forces.

The cloud has spread out along the orbit and radially out from the sun. Two times every orbit, the meteoroid particles converge close to the common nodes of the orbits rendering the cloud observable with modest equipment.

Lyytinen et al. have recently imaged the dust cloud at the southern converging point when earth's orbital plane coincided with that of the cloud's. The southern part of the cloud should be observable in August 2013. The cloud will become observable at the northern converging point in fall 2013, and be so for several years.

Charts and data

  • General illustration of the northern converging point position in the sky affected by yearly parallax
  • Northern converging point in 2013/14 showing position angle of cloud, and with postitions from Lyytinen et al. JIMO paper
  • Southern converging point in August 2013 from Lyytinen et al. CBET
  • TDF for Guide showing convergence point for 2014/2015 (right click to save)
  • Image showing northern convergence point for early 2015
  • Convergence point coordinates as HMS in RA and degrees in declination

    • Copyright and stuff

    All images are Copyright Jari Suomela. Commercial reproduction is prohibited without prior express consent. Data used in the charts are from JPL Horizons, Lyytinen et al. JIMO paper, and Lyytinen et al. CBET. Charts are screen captures from Project Pluto's Guide (Version 9). Guide visualisation with TDF prepared by Jari Suomela.

    2013-Aug-15 Initial release
    2013-Aug-15 Editing
    2013-Oct-17 Typo fixed
    2014-Aug-29 TDF for 2014/2015
    2015-Feb-16 Added image of convergence point for early 2015. Added file with coordinates in HMS and degrees in declination.