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Nov 29, 2007

dry Venus and the Comet's tail grows back

Space Weather News for Nov. 29, 2007

SOLAR WIND DRIES VENUS: The European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft has made an important discovery: the solar wind dries out Venus.

Unlike Earth, Venus has no global magnetic field to deflect particles from the sun; when solar wind hits Venus it actually strips away some of Venus' upper atmosphere. Hydrogen and oxygen atoms fly into space, removing from Venus the chemical building blocks of water. This process makes an already hellish planet even worse.

Link to more information may be found below.

COMET 17P/HOLMES UPDATE: Now that the full Moon has left the evening sky, Comet Holmes is visible again. The comet is not as bright as it was when it first exploded in late October.

Most people now have trouble finding it with the naked eye. A quick sweep through Perseus with a pair of binoculars, however, will pinpoint the comet while the smallest of telescopes reveals it to be a truly impressive object.

Comet Holmes now occupies about 10 times the volume of the Sun and it is developing a hint of a blue-green tail. A similar tail was observed in early November, but it broke off during an apparent magnetic storm.

Now the tail is growing back.

Visit SpaceWeather.com for sky maps and the latest images.

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