Posted on 09/26/2012 6:29:10 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok, of the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) in Russia, discovered comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) on 21 September via images taken with a 40-centimetre reflecting telescope. Other sky-watchers soon spotted it, and the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced the find yesterday.
From the combined observations, astronomers were able to trace the comet's recent path and find images of it dating back to late December 2011. From there they calculated a near-parabolic orbit that has comet ISON headed almost straight towards the sun.
Astronomers at the Remanzacco Observatory in Italy think that ISON will skim less than 1.4 million kilometres from the sun's surface on 28 or 29 November...
As with Lulin, the intense heat of ISON's solar fly-by should vaporise the comet's hard shell of pristine ices, releasing trapped dust that would help it grow an exceptionally bright tail. Astronomy Now magazine reports that comet ISON could even be brighter than the full moon around its closest approach to the sun.
Skirting our star means that, to viewers on Earth, the comet will appear close to the horizon and to the sun's glare, making it difficult to see at first. ISON will fade but become easier to spot as it heads back towards the outer solar system. By 9 December it should be about as bright as Polaris, the North Star, according to Remanzacco Observatory astronomers. ISON should continue to be visible to the unaided eye until mid-January 2014.
But veteran astronomers warn that fresh comets with orbits that almost skim the sun are notoriously unpredictable. Results can range from the spectacular comet McNaught of January 2007 to the infamously fizzled comet Kohoutek of 1973.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
THIS IS THE THREAD POLICE! DROP THE MOUSE AND STEP SLOWLY AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER!
Wormwood?
Hale Bop LoL!
It would be funny if the previous user left the roof shut, and put a photograph over the scope opening .... 8<)
Wormwood?
Calls for math skills.
Something like that crunches most of the numbers for you.
Hopefully Comet Barack will miss on it's near earth collision course; and head back out to outer space to never be heard from again.
Somehow I don’t think you could focus up that close.
Gee, must we get crunched? What numbers are we talking about there in that scope?
The only comet that somewhat measured up during my lifetime was Hale-Bopp in 1997 - the one that caused that Heaven's Gate cult to commit mass-suicide. At least that one you could spot with the naked eye and while not exactly spectacular, it was something you could look up in the sky and actually see without having to rig up a telescope.
Comets pretty much suck wind. I did like Bill Haley and his Comets however.
Well with all moving objects calculations must be made.
We are moving, it is moving.
We need to know its path and our path.
Catching a baseball is a lot easier LoL
In ancient times comets were looked upon in fear. When looking at one in a scope it is no wonder why. The naked eye seeing one caused mass hysteria in ancient times. Was supposed to be a predictor of terrible events to come. Thus is a message being sent by Heaven? Unknown, but thinking we will soon find out.
yep. Constructing the path to be taken, by a comet, is nearly a shot in the dark. Comets appear from nowhere, and the calculations are normally thirty percent to forty percent correct on the path. Whoever said our planet (Earth) sits in the middle of a shooting gallery knew exactly what was true.
Lots of exposure to error at astronomical distances.
Sorry, this is completely wrong.
the orbit has already been calculated with quite high precision in just a few days.
The uncertainty lies with how bright it gets - THAT is a shot in the dark. Or whether the comet breaks up as it approaches the sun.
May you be correct. Sometimes though one does not plan for the wrench to go into the works. That wrench can be wicked for tearing up things, even the best of calculations. May you be correct though.
Kohoutek was definitely visible to the naked eye in the US. I remember it quite well and somewhere I have photographs of it.
You're not going to wake up one morning and find out that it's going to hit Earth.
I have a feeling you avoid astronomy sites and rely on nutter information.
Newtonian gravitation has been around for hundreds of years and we understand it quite well.
I saw Halley’s Comet at a local observatory. Quite a letdown. You could duplicate the experience by sitting in a large dark room looking through a Coke bottle at a nitelite at the opposite end of the room.
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