Chabot Space and Science Center astronomer Ben Burress had trouble spotting a comet that had just flared brightly in the evening sky with binoculars — but when he went to work Thursday night, he focused the observatory's 36-inch reflector telescope on the comet and saw it just fine.

It's kind of a cotton ball shape, Burress said. That's the cloud of gas and ice that surrounds the icy nucleus, which shows up as a white glob in the center, he said.

The comet, known to astronomers as Comet17P/Holmes, isn't new. It was first spotted more than 100 years ago and has made 16 circuits around the sun. But it has long been a dull, nearly invisible orb until this week, when it suddenly flared up, becoming brighter than any comet in the past decade.

The reason is there was an outburst or eruption on the comet and it ejected a lot of material that is being reflected (more...)