Comet C/2012 S1 - ISON

Re: Comet C/2012 S1

Some speculation that the Great Comet may have fragmented into large chunks which would account for the similarities. What if there's more than one piece coming? :shock:

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_ISON
 
Re: Comet C/2012 S1

An interesting YT video published yesterday from BPEarthWatch titled ISON COVER UP/May not be a comet. Part 1.
 
Comet Ison

I did a search here but nothing showed up. I was wondering if anyone here has been keeping tabs on this one.

It's supposedly the comet of the century and should be highly visible in the nights sky sometime around Thanksgiving.

http://www.space.com/22002-comet-ison-timeline-sun-flyby.html
 
Re: Comet C/2012 S1

topic merged :)

BTW, the NASA Comet ISON Observing Campaign : _http://www.isoncampaign.org
 
Re: Comet C/2012 S1

mkrnhr said:
topic merged :)

BTW, the NASA Comet ISON Observing Campaign : _http://www.isoncampaign.org
Click to expand...

As well, SOTT.net carries updates to comets, ISON just being one of many. Just do a Search on ISON and you will find quite a few articles.
 
UPDATE: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/193909261.html

September 17: Brightening... gradually. The image below, taken this morning by Alfons Diepvens in Belgium, is typical of the best pictures now coming in from amateurs around the world.

ISON-Sep-17-by-Diepvens.jpg


The comet is still about 13th magnitude. Diepvens' exposures tracked it as it moved, turning stars into streaks. The comet is heading almost straight toward the Sun, which is why its tail is nearly aligned with its motion. This situation will continue until late November.

As for how bright the comet will become, there's really no saying. Everything depends on whether and when the comet's nucleus will break up near perihelion November 28th. Too early a breakup would extinguish the comet completely. A breakup right after perihelion could produce a long-tailed spectacle in the December dawn, mimicking Comet Lovejoy of 2011. That comet, a Sun-grazer like ISON, was still 13th magnitude just three weeks before its perihelion breakup.
 
Perihelion of ISON: November 28.

Here is the great comet of 1680. Passing 0.42 AUs from Earth on 30 November 1680. exactly 333 yrs. ago.

it sped around an incredibly close perihelion of 0.0062 AU (930,000 km; 580,000 mi) on 18 December 1680, reaching its peak brightness on 29 December

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Comet_of_1680

Verschuier1680.jpg
 
One can only hope this comet puts on a GRAND show!!

Found a nifty site that can give you an idea where it is based on what is known plus where the inner planets are in comparison.

_http://www.cometison2013.co.uk/perihelion-and-distance/
 
luke wilson said:
One can only hope this comet puts on a GRAND show!!

Found a nifty site that can give you an idea where it is based on what is known plus where the inner planets are in comparison.

_http://www.cometison2013.co.uk/perihelion-and-distance/
Click to expand...

You can also have a better interactive view of the orbit from the JPL Small-Body Database Browser (needs java plugin): _http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=ISON;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=1#orb
 
Comet ISON is very weird. at least this picture is: goggle "swift sizes up comet ison". it's a NASA picture of ISON from january this year. it's the only image of ISON with a scale of reference and when calculated it shows that comet's tail was 50000 km wide, and the nucleus at least a few thousand kilometers wide, if not much wider. Also, the image was taken when ISON was somewhere around Jupiter's orbit which means it couldn't have a full scale tail or comma beacuse it's to far away. Now, when the comet is much closer to the Sun, NASA is saying its tail is only 3700 km wide and the nucleus 5 km,so according to NASA this comet shrank enormously and they're not saying anything. There's something weird going on here and i think SOTT should pay attention to this. This might be the comet cluster that the C's have been talking about.
 
Hi Revolucionar,
Are referring to this observation here? _http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/ison.html
I don't recall any official estimation of the nucleus being larger than a few kilometres. Comet ISON is behaving like a typical comet although it is under-performing in terms of brightness. It is still a very interesting object from the point of view of its orbit: close approaches of Mars (October 1st, ~0.07AU), the Sun (November 28th, 0.01AU) and Earth (December 26th, ~0.43AU) with the possibility that Earth will pass through its debris around mid-January 2014. Also, the fact that its orbit matches closely the orbit of the great comet of 1680 makes it a very interesting object to follow, with the possibility of similar effects more or less.
 
Yes, I'm referring to this observation. I don't really care about official estimations. If you calculate the size of the object on the image in question, you find that it''s about 50000 km wide. NASA is now saying that the tail is 3700 km wide. So the comet came closer, but became 12 times smaller? And this picture from January is the only image of ISON with a scale of reference. Somebody is lying here. For what reason, I don't know, but something is very fishy about this.
 
Revolucionar said:
Yes, I'm referring to this observation. I don't really care about official estimations. If you calculate the size of the object on the image in question, you find that it''s about 50000 km wide. NASA is now saying that the tail is 3700 km wide. So the comet came closer, but became 12 times smaller? And this picture from January is the only image of ISON with a scale of reference. Somebody is lying here. For what reason, I don't know, but something is very fishy about this.
Click to expand...

The "size" in the image is not the size of the body. The image shows the electrical plasma excitation that can vary a great deal either due to discharging of the body or variations of the charge in space. That is, it is kind of like a light bulb with a dimmer switch. A small light bulb can appear to be very large from a distance if it is on full power; but if it is dimmed, it will appear very small.
 
I know very well what it is. The point is that NASA is now saying that the tail is only 3700 km wide, but it was 50000 km 8 months ago. If this is so, it should be a huge news item, because a comet shrank 12 times in 8 months. that, in itself, is very weird. A comets tail should be getting bigger as it makes its way towards the Sun, not smaller. If that isn't strange, I don't know what is.
 
Revolucionar said:
I know very well what it is. The point is that NASA is now saying that the tail is only 3700 km wide, but it was 50000 km 8 months ago. If this is so, it should be a huge news item, because a comet shrank 12 times in 8 months. that, in itself, is very weird. A comets tail should be getting bigger as it makes its way towards the Sun, not smaller. If that isn't strange, I don't know what is.
Click to expand...

Actually, it is not a "huge news item". It merely means that the electrical interactions are changing which is to be expected with comets. Of course, NASA thinks it is just the heating or cooling of the body and whether or not it is discharging dust. Either way, it is not a "huge news item."

Let me say this again: it is not the comet that is shrinking, it is merely it's electrical interaction with the surrounding space.

And even if it were heating or cooling and the discharging of dust, it's still not that significant, weird or strange. Not all comet tails get bigger as they approach the sun especially if they don't have a strong charge and discharge quickly. If you've been studying comets as long as some of us have, you know that they come in all sizes, shapes, dynamics, etc.
 
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