17P/Holmes Acham's Razor

I wish some erudite analysts would consider the (as the self appointed scientific apparaisers have poopooed) possibility of an impact for the explanation of 17P/Holmes outburst. The magnitude of this is such that the expansion in apparently all directions is approaching 100,000 miles per day. Also, consider where in the solar system it resides and the expansion occurred. Is it not in the Asteroid Belt? In fact we really do not know where all the "small" denizens of the AB are, or how many there are?

Now, for a mass that is reported to be a few miles in dimensions, the self contained ability to explode with the apparent magnitude we have observed seems quite unusual.

Will someone please provide a more plausible explanation why an impact is not the cause using something more than the supposition that it is "highly unlikely" since there is very little out there. First, how much is really "out there"?

Has anyone found an analysis that describes why the outburst due to impact is not a probably explanation? Just how would an impact manifest itself? What type of impact would cause the observed phenomena? Are we too scared (global warming) to propose or evaluate an unpopular hypothesis? I remember a training session where during a contrived quiz, one of the members burst out laughing "Stick them in your armpits?!" Well, everyone got the answer wrong. The question related to giving a little life to spent batteries.

Do we need some complex explanation that is not verifiable rather than to trust Acham and at least consider something more common like an impact? I suspect that various scenarios of impacts could be evaluated through computer modeling to either justify the possiblilty or demonstrate that impact is just not "possible".

Part of it is the comet's history. The fact that there was a previous outburst a century ago suggests that this particular chunk of ice has some unique "geology" that makes it prone to such events. There's a history of something 'unusual' here.

If one is to chalk it up to an impact, then it implies one would suggest the same for the previous outburst. To have two such collisions within less than 20 orbits of each other, on such a small object, that happen to be just large enough to produce a spectacular outburst, but not large enough to destroy the comet, requires a pretty fair leap of faith, imho.

It's not just a matter of an 'unlikely event' -- it's a matter of two highly unlikely events, of similar magnitude, happening in the same place, at (from a cosmic perspective) nearly the same time.

Another piece of information that may lean towards some explanation of the outburst is the boiling point of ethane which is approximately -88 C with a melting point of -172 C. A rapid or instaneous addition of energy that would raise the temperature above -88 degrees could cause a large scale vaporization of ethane which could be quite explosive. The quantity of energy required and the mechanism for that energy is left to the readers imagination.

The simplest explanation is not necessarily the one easiest to comprehend.