ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PRESS INFORMATION NOTE
Ref.: PN 08/21 (NAM 12)
Issued by RAS Press Officers:
Dr Robert Massey
Tel: +44 (0)20 7734 3307 / 4582
Mobile: +44 (0)794 124 8035
E-mail: rm(at)ras.org.uk
Anita Heward
Tel: +44 (0)1483 420904
Mobile: +44 (0)7756 034243
E-mail: anitaheward(at)btinternet.com
NATIONAL ASTRONOMY MEETING PRESS ROOM (31 MARCH - 4 APRIL ONLY):
Tel: +44 (0)2890 975262
975263
975264
NAM 2008
http://nam2008.qub.ac.uk
Royal Astronomical Society
http://www.ras.org.uk
CONTACT DETAILS ARE LISTED AT THE END OF THIS RELEASE
RAS PN 08/21 (NAM 12) (EMBARGOED): PLANET FINDER CATCHES A COMET
Last October, astronomers all over the world were astounded when the
normally very faint Comet Holmes erupted in the largest outburst for
more than a century. Speaking at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in
Belfast on Wednesday 2 April, Queen's University Belfast astronomer Dr.
Henry Hsieh will describe how a UK telescope was in the right place at
the right time to capture the first images of this once-in-a-lifetime event.
The SuperWASP-North facility on the island of La Palma was built by UK
scientists to discover planets around other stars. The 8 cameras that
make up the system operate robotically, automatically scanning large
areas of the sky each night. By coincidence, at 2339 GMT on the evening
of 24 October 2007, it was pointing towards Comet 17P Holmes.
"By the time SuperWASP spotted the comet, it had already brightened by a
factor of 1000" explains Dr. Hsieh. "But this was still almost 3 hours
before anyone else noticed it." (That honour belongs to amateur
astronomer Juan Antonio Henriquez Santana who saw the eruption from
Tenerife).
Over the next 2 hours the comet continued brightening, until SuperWASP
could no longer accurately measure it - it was too bright for the cameras!
Comets are bodies orbiting the Sun composed of frozen gases and
microscopic solid particles in a small solid nucleus. When they come
close to the Sun, they heat up and some of the icy material turns to
gas, producing characteristic tails. But during this outburst, Comet
Holmes released a large amount of its material all at once.
Two days after the eruption began, sunlight reflecting from the ejected
material had made the comet one million times brighter than it was
originally making it easily visible to observers across the northern
hemisphere.
Dr. Hsieh comments "Over the next few weeks, SuperWASP continued to
observe Comet Holmes as the cloud of dust and gas surrounding the 3-km
diameter nucleus of the comet steadily expanded. By 31st October, the
cloud was already 900,000 km across or more than twice the distance from
the Earth to the Moon.
"Using our SuperWASP observations, we measured the speed of expansion of
the outer edge of this cloud to be over 1500 km per hour and by 17
November measured the size of the cloud to be more than 2 million km
across - much larger than the Sun."
Two weeks after the outburst, SuperWASP captured an added bonus - the
faint and delicate tail of the comet composed of the gas released from
the nucleus. As astronomers watched over the next few weeks, this tail
gradually faded and moved away from the comet.
Although many images were gathered by astronomers around the world, the
precise cause of the outburst is still a mystery. All they know right
now is that it happened once before - in 1892 - and may well happen again.
IMAGES AND ANIMATIONS
Images and animations of Comet Holmes from SuperWASP
http://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/~hhh/holmes
FURTHER INFORMATION
SuperWASP
http://www.superwasp.org
Astrophysics Research Centre, Queen's University Belfast
http://star.pst.qub.ac.uk
RAS National Astronomy Meeting
http://nam2008.qub.ac.uk
RAS home page
http://www.ras.org.uk
STFC home page
http://www.stfc.ac.uk
NOTES FOR EDITORS
The SuperWASP-North facility is operated by the WASP consortium, which
consists of representatives from Queens University Belfast, the
University of Cambridge (Wide Field Astronomy Unit), Instituto de
Astrofisica de Canarias, the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (La
Palma), the University of Keele, the University of Leicester, the Open
University, the University of St Andrews and the South African
Astronomical Observatory.
The SuperWASP-North and -South instruments were constructed and are
operated with funds made available from consortium universities and the
UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. SuperWASP-North is located
in the Spanish Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, Canary
Islands which is operated by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC).
The RAS National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2008) is hosted by Queen's
University Belfast. It is principally sponsored by the RAS and the
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). NAM 2008 is being held
together with the UK Solar Physics (UKSP) and Magnetosphere, Ionosphere
and Solar-Terrestrial (MIST) spring meetings.
CONTACTS
Dr Henry Hsieh
Astrophysics Research Centre
School of Mathematics and Physics
Queen's University Belfast
University Road
Belfast BT7 1NN
UK
E-mail: h.hsieh(at)qub.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)28 9097 3692
Professor Alan Fitzsimmons
Astrophysics Research Centre
School of Mathematics and Physics
Queen's University Belfast
University Road
Belfast BT7 1NN
UK
E-mail: a.fitzsimmons(at)qub.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)28 9097 3124
