Posted on 11/25/2013 12:38:44 PM PST by Red Badger
Professional astronomers are eagerly awaiting the comet's much-anticipated brush with the sun, expected for Thanksgiving Day.
The promising Comet ISON's close pass by the sun this week has amateur astronomers on the edge of their seats, but professional scientists are anticipating the celestial encounter with perhaps even greater relish.
Comet ISON is set to skim just 730,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) above the surface of the sun on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 28). The comet has brightened considerably as it has zoomed closer and closer to the sun in recent weeks, thrilling stargazers who have captured amazing photos of ISON and giving researchers interested in comet composition a lot to look forward to in the coming days.
"We're going to see primitive solar system material outgassing and sublimating when it's right close to the sun," said Karl Battams of the U.S. Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C., who studies "sungrazing" comets like ISON. "So that right there gives us a huge chunk of valuable information."
A pristine sungrazer
It's not particularly rare for a comet to zip close to the sun, or even dive straight through our star's sizzling-hot atmosphere. But Comet ISON is special, researchers say.
For starters, Comet ISON is bigger than most other sungrazers, with a core estimated to be about 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide, Battams said. Further, Comet ISON is likely making its first trip through the inner solar system from the distant, frigid comet repository known as the Oort Cloud. So its volatile components have not been baked off already by previous encounters with the sun, giving scientists a rare look at a relatively pristine comet.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
I believe it re-appears bigger, after this weekend?
Getting ready.
ONLY if it survives the trip behind the sun...................
Yeah, me too! Thanks for the ping.
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