PSJC #65 Apr 16 2010

Rachel Stevenson (UCLA)

The Aftermath of the Comet Holmes Outburst

The outburst of Comet Holmes in October 2007 was the largest ever recorded. The comet brightened from 17th magnitude to 2nd in under 24 hours, ejecting a dust cloud that grew to be larger than the Sun. The aftermath of the outburst showed numerous cometary fragments, dust tails and shells. I will present results from our wide-field monitoring campaign of Comet Holmes. Some of the results that will be presented can be found in in our paper "Transient Fragments in Outbursting Comet 17P/Holmes".