Comets.

[carrust]

Is the comet Holmes, which was visible last year in Perseus, still in the Solar System?

[Rollo]

Apparently it is always within the solar system. It follows an inclined elliptical orbit of the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

[carrust]

I thought it exploded into a massive gas ball? They said it was the largest object in the Solar System..even bigger than the sun!

[Rollo]

According to this they estimated that only 1% of the comet's mass was lost in the explosion.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7070 108.stm

[carrust]

Thanks for that Rollo.

[R1Geezer]

all comets are in the solar system, by definition, they orbit the Kin sun don't they! Even if they explode the bits are in the solar system, geddit?

[carrust]

And a merry Xmas to you R1 Geezer

[jake-the-peg]

Actually comets don't all have to be in our solar system some fly in and out again.

But Holmes wasn't one of those it was a periodic so will always be in a solar orbit.

The Biggest thing in our solar system is a load of rot really. It's measured by taking the length of the tail.

IMHO that's a bit like including the exhaust gasses when measuring the length of a car!

It's solid bit is really a couple of miles across

It should be back around 2014

[carrust]

I've found this http://www.uksafari.com/cometholmes.htm

[R1Geezer]

yes but as jake says it's a load of old pony, they are saying the resultant clound of debris has expanded to be larger than the sun. A comet is a very small dirty snowball in reality. If I farted the gas would no doubt spread out to be larger than my office block are we saying my fart is now the largest object in the street? Bowlocks!