Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No its Comet 17P/Holmes brightening up the night sky. It was visible using telescopes for the past few weeks. But now it can even be seen without any special equipment. So take a walk outside in the dark and check out the comet in all its glory.

From Associated Press: The comet is exploding and its coma, a cloud of gas and dust illuminated by the sun, has grown to be bigger than the planet Jupiter. The comet lacks the tail usually associated with such celestial bodies but can be seen in the northern sky, in the constellation Perseus, as a fuzzy spot of light about as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper.
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Scientists speculate the comet has exploded because there are sinkholes in its nucleus, giving it a honeycomb-like structure. The collapse exposed comet ice to the sun, which transformed the ice into gas.

Comet 17P/Holmes photo gallery shows various images of the comet from different places around the globe. For a relative growth of the comet’s brightness check out the graphical representation on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day.

From Sky & Telescope: the comet remains as bright as ever to the naked eye, though its average surface brightness continues to drop as it enlarges. As of last night it was 14 arcminutes wide, or nearly ¼° — half the apparent diameter of the Moon. During this dark-of-the-Moon period (which will end around November 15th), seize whatever chance the weather allows to show family, friends, and strangers something memorable. This is how new amateur astronomers are born.

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