Mysterious, city-size 'centaur' comet gets 300 times brighter after quadruple cold-volcanic eruption

[Admin]

The cryovolcanic "centaur" comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann has erupted four times in less than 48 hours, becoming unusually bright in the process. It is the most powerful outburst from the city-size oddball in more than three years.

Mysterious, city-size 'centaur' comet gets 300 times brighter after quadruple cold-volcanic eruption : Read more

 

[TheRealDeal12]

Honestly thats kinda insane but i think that it had to deal with pressure and heat.

 

[billslugg]

"...is a large icy object spanning around 37 miles (60 kilometers) across — around three times the length of Manhattan..."

There is not a person who would benefit by that comparison. Not one person cannot visualize "37 miles" yet knows how big Manhattan is.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

Well, I sort of agree with Bill's point about size comparisons.

But, with Google Maps, it is easy to see the area of Manhattan. For example, see https://www.google.com/maps/@40.938...try=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTEwNi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw== . And there is a nifty little "5 mile" scale located on that bottom right corner.

Still, it is hard to see the boundaries of Manhattan on that map.

It would have been better for the article to have specified the distance between 2 easily identified points on a map that would be easy to find. But, that take some work to find a set of points that most people can identify with.

Actually, you can do the work yourself. In Google Maps, just go to someplace you recognize and right-click on the map to get the menu, which has "measure distance" as the bottom option. Left-click on that and then left-click and hold on the little black circle to drag it to where you want to start measuring from. Release the click and then left-click again somewhere else on the map to get another little black circle and the distance between the circles. Now, by left-clicking and holding on that second circle, you can drag it out to a distance of 37 miles, and move it around to someplace that you have a feel for the distance to. Unfortunately, the URL does not capture the distance measurement, so I can't post an example of the result here. But, it is easy enough to learn and do for yourself.