Comments:Unexpected comet 'outburst' could be visible for weeks

I was wondering how long ago did the explosion/outburst atually take place, given, how many light years the comit is away from Earth? I have been trying to find the answer to this question online without any luck. Debbie

Precisely, what is the cause of the Outbust? Atmosphere, the coma, what?76.236.145.14 18:04, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Debbie, the comet is in orbit around OUR sun Sol, not in the light-year range at all. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Comet_Holmes_orbit_2007.gif has a fairly good depiction of Holmes's orbit. I'm not sure how far Holmes is exactly, but it IS inside the orbit of Jupiter (816,520,751 km at it's furthest from the sun) That translates into about 45 light-minutes. Hope that helps. 205.132.76.4 07:37, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Comet Holmes 2007 outburst is monitored and light curve is provided in details in the following reference,

http://arxiv.org/abs/0908.1450

"Continuous Monitoring of Comet Holmes from Before the 2007 Outburst" Authors: E. E. El-Houssieny, R. J. Nemiroff, T. E. Pickering