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 ...
PING to you, you’ll want to see this.
‘But momma~~~~~~~ that’s where the fun izzzzz!’
Love that song!
Placemark.
Comet Hale-Bopp back in 1997 was pretty spectacular, I must say.
For Halley’s I was in a rural area that did not have much light pollution nor moonlight that night. Having heard a lot about Halley’s in school, I was happy to get to see it.
Hale Bopp was from a 747 going from SF to Singapore, about Midnight over the Aleutians. Was bigger but not a defined as Halley’s.
Probably not unusual for Acorns to not fall far from the tree with conservative kids.
Not likely.
An object 50 million miles away that’s 0.3% of the moon’s diameter?
Found Halley to be little more than a smudge viewed from Jones Beach on the south shore of Long Island.
Both Hyakutake in ‘96 and Hale-Bopp in ‘97 were easily visible to the naked eye from the roof of my Queens, NY apartment building.
Especially a spotted comet.
The ordinary comets and the less common striped comets just don’t compare with the are spotted kind. I can only hope the spots will be discernible through my binoculars
the closest approach happens in Nov-Dec 2013, but the whole tone of the article seems to imply that the closest approach is just around the corner, and we should start staring now.
Woudn ;t the comet be name d after teh discovers and be called Comet Nevski-Novichonok?
It was just before sunrise, and the Eastern sky was already beginning to turn light, but the comet was up there looking like a big flashlight beam in the sky. The comet itself appeared to big almost the same size as the moon. Good thing I had got up to take a leak, or I would have missed it.
Glad you saw Halley’s. Comets are always something special due to the number one may or may not see in a lifetime.
The tail and coma of a comet is gaseous, and by comparison with the comet’s body is enormous. And it’s bright white with a high albedo. In short, yeah it can. :’)
I’m not too worried though. :’)
Thanks.
:’D
That was quite a buildup and letdown. Interestingly, there was a large comet I remember, probably late 1960s or very early 1970s; dad got us kids out of bed around 2:30 in the morning, and we looked at it out the window. Then went back to sleep.
They’ll get to pick a name; that numerical designation is for cataloging purposes.
The last big one I remember around here (that I saw anyway) must have been in the 1990s. I was south of here, in a small town, looking at a bicycle; the dealer / bike enthusiast invited me to have a look through the binocs, but they were hardly necessary.
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