Posted on 07/24/2013 6:55:58 AM PDT by BenLurkin
A comet that could put on a dazzling show when it zooms through the inner solar system later this year is already blasting out huge amounts of gas and dust, new observations by a NASA spacecraft show.
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The comet, which is about 3 miles (5 km) wide, is cruising toward a close encounter with the sun on Nov. 28, when it will skim just 724,000 miles (1.16 million km) above the solar surface. ISON could blaze up dramatically around this time, perhaps shining as brightly as the full moon in the sky, researchers say. But there's no guarantee that ISON will live up to the hype. For example, it could break apart as it approaches the sun, fizzling out as some other "comet of the century" candidates have done over the years.
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Comet ISON is becoming more active as it warms up during this epic journey. Researchers expect to get an increasingly detailed look at ISON's composition over time, because different materials boil off at different distances from the sun.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Don’t forget Hale-Bopp, an unexpectedly bright comet. Astronomers did not expect the 1986 apparition of Comet Halley to be notable. In 1910, the Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s comet, so the comet and its tail literally filled the sky. Light polution was much less of an issue than in 1986, as well.
ISON could be in the Hale-Bopp category. Halley owes it fame to two causes. First the 1910 apparition which firmly established it popular lore. My grandparents were between 10 and 17 when it appeared. In 1986, the previous apparition was in the living memory of literally millions of people. Second, Edmund Halley predicted its appearance in 1758, after studing earlier observations of comets, and applying Newton’s Laws. The reappearance of Halley’s Comet in 1758 was one of the great early successes of Newtonian mechanics.
My son inlaw said we might be able to see it during the day.
My grandpaw talked about that. He was a teenager at that time,he said you could see it during the day.
I’ll be waiting on Betelgeuse to go supernova.
Yeah. I feel cheated.
Imagine the comet had been a little faster or slower. Life on earth as we know it might have ended in 1910.
Crossing the “Roche Limit” should pulverize any aggregate mass, so no worries about a cannon ball. Understudy for a “clay pigeon”? Anyone know if the plane of the projected exit trajectory approaches Earth’s orbit if comet debris exit in a fan pattern? Suitably coated metallic objects have survived near ground zero nuclear detonations due to ablative shielding effects. Some of the comet fragments could survive shielded within a cloud of vaporizing debris post breakup.
The comet, which is about 3 miles (5 km) wide, is cruising toward a close encounter with the sun on Nov. 28, when it will skim just 724,000 miles (1.16 million km) above the solar surface. ISON could blaze up dramatically around this time, perhaps shining as brightly as the full moon in the sky, researchers say. But there's no guarantee that ISON will live up to the hype.
Thanks martin for this one, which can only be linked, iow, can’t be its own topic, probably still of interest.
An Algorithm Uses Galaxies to Draw Your Portrait
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/07/your-face-made-from-stardust-and-space-matter/
Placemark for bad omen comet reading!
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