Comet Ikeya-Murakami (C/2010 V1) is definitely undergoing an outburst event. Italian astronomers Ernesto Guido and Giovanni Sostero assembled the following animation from images they obtained between Nov. 4th and Nov 9th:

Comet Ikeya-Murakami
© Space Weather.comComet Ikeya-Murakami
See the animated image here.

The sequence clearly shows an explosion in progress. "Only Nov. 7th is missing," they say, "because of rare cloudy skies over New Mexico, where the remotely-controlled telescope we used is located."

Another New Mexico observer, Leonid Elenin, estimates the size of comet's expanding atmosphere as 4x6 arcminutes. "There is also some evidence of two symmetrical jets emerging from the nucleus of the comet," he says.

The behavior of this comet reminds many onlookers of exploding Comet Holmes in 2007. Researchers believe Holmes exploded when an icy cavern in the comet's nucleus collapsed. Perhaps something similar has happened to Comet Ikeya-Murakami. The icy visitor from the outer solar system made its closest approach to the Sun in late October, so it has just received a dose of solar heating that could trigger such an event.

Amateur astronomers are encouraged to monitor developments. Various reports put the brightness of the comet between 7th and 9th magnitude, invisible to the naked eye but an easy target for telescopes such as the Comet Hunter. It's easy to find, too, little more than a degree from Saturn in the eastern sky before dawn. Set your alarm and happy hunting! [Sky maps: Nov. 9, 10, 11] [3D orbit] [ephemeris]

More Images: from Joseph Brimacombe using a robotic telescope in New Mexico (Nov.8); from Gil Esquerdo of Whipple Observatory, Mt. Hopkins, Arizona (Nov. 8); from Tenho Tuomi of Lucky Lake, SK, Canada (Nov. 7); from Gregg Ruppel of Ellisville, Missouri (Nov. 7); from Feys Filip of Crete, Greece (Nov. 6); from Gregg Ruppel of Ellisville, Missouri (Nov. 6); from Gregg Ruppel of Ellisville, Missouri (Nov. 5); from Luca Buzzi of the G.V. Schiaparelli Astronomical Observatory in Varese, Italy (Nov. 4);