Comet Holmes, a comet discovered in 1999, brightened a millionfold in a 24 hour period to the fascination of scientists. Astronomers used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to view the comet's core for clues as to why it suddenly brightened. When the comet was first discovered, there was virtually no dust around its nucleus. Now due to Hubble's pictures, we can see odd dust distributions surrounding the nucleus, as well as three jets of dust coming from the nucleus and just west of the nucleus. Unlike the patterns of past comets that increased dramatically in brightness, astronomers have detected no fragments of comet being ejected from the nucleus of Holmes. Observations are currently rather difficult because of the large amoung of dust surrounding the nucleus and the comet's large distance from the Earth (1.6 AUs). If you want to see some cool pictures, go to the website. I'd post them on the blog but I don't know how.
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0711/15cometholmes/
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