The comet 17P/Holmes 2007 outburst: the early motion of the outburst material

Abstract

Context. On October 24, 2007 the periodic comet 17P/Holmes underwent an astonishing outburst that increased its apparent total brightness from magnitude V\sim17 up to V\sim2.5 in roughly two days. We report on Wendelstein 0.8 m telescope (WST) photometric observations of the early evolution stages of the outburst. Aims. We studied the evolution of the structure morphology, its kinematic, and estimated the ejected dust mass. Methods. We analized 126 images in the BVRI photometric bands spread between 26/10/2007 and 20/11/2007. The bright comet core appeared well separated from that one of a quickly expanding dust cloud in all the data, and the bulk of the latter was contained in the field of view of our instrument. The ejected dust mass was derived on the base of differential photometry on background stars occulted by the moving cloud. Results. The two cores were moving apart from each other at a relative projected constant velocity of (9.87 +/- 0.07) arcsec/day (0.135 +/-0.001 km/sec). In the inner regions of the dust cloud we observed a linear increase in size at a mean constant velocity of (14.6+/-0.3) arcsec/day (0.200+/-0.004 km/sec). Evidence of a radial velocity gradient in the expanding cloud was also found. Our estimate for the expanding coma's mass was of the order of 10^{-2}-1 comet's mass implying a significant disintegration event. Conclusions. We interpreted our observations in the context of an explosive scenario which was more probably originated by some internal instability processes, rather than an impact with an asteroidal body. Due to the peculiar characteristics of this event, further observations and investigations are necessary in order to enlight the nature of the physical processes that determined it.