Hubble zooms in on heart of mystery comet

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has probed the bright core of comet 17P/Holmes, which, to the delight of sky watchers, mysteriously brightened by nearly a millionfold in a 24-hour period beginning 23 October 2007. Astronomers used Hubble's powerful resolution to study Comet Holmes' core for clues about how the comet brightened. The orbiting observatory's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) monitored the comet for several days, snapping images on 29 Oct., 31 Oct., and 4 Nov. Hubble's crisp 'eye' can see objects as small as 33 miles (54 kilometres) across, providing the sharpest view yet of the source of the spectacular brightening... — full story