Our Sun's own Frankenstein! Comet ISON is ALIVE!

Soho C3 Solargraph / Comet ISON emerging from the Perihelion
Credit: SOHO ESA/NASA

30.11.2013 Kustavi, Finland
Comet C/2012 S1 ISON is ALIVE!!!

Over the fall people started to get excited about Comet ISON, would it be the comet of the century? Would it turn into an spectacular show in the sky? On November 28,2013 as Comet ISON reached it perihelion, it grazed the Sun and appeared to disappear into the Sun.

At everybody surprise, something reappeared from the other side of our Sun. The dead Comet came back alive!

Karl Battams of NASA's Comet ISON Observing Campaign says, "[colleague] Matthew Knight and I are ripping our hair out right now as we know that so many people in the public, the media and in science teams want to know what's happened. 

We'd love to know that too! Right now, here's our working hypothesis:

"As comet ISON plunged towards to the Sun, it began to fall apart, losing not giant fragments but at least a lot of reasonably sized chunks. There's evidence of very large dust in the long thin tail we saw in the [SOHO coronagraph] images. Then, as ISON plunged through the corona, it continued to fall apart and vaporize, losing its coma and tail completely just like sungrazing Comet Lovejoy did in 2011. What emerged from the Sun was a small but perhaps somewhat coherent nucleus that has resumed emitting dust and gas for at least the time being."

Battams emphasizes that it is too soon to tell how big the remnant nucleus is or how bright the resurgent comet will ultimately become. "We have a whole new set of unknowns, and this ridiculous, crazy, dynamic and unpredictable object continues to amaze, astound and confuse us to no end. We ask that you please be patient with us for a couple of days as we analyze the data and try to work out what is happening."
 
Here @ our Astronomy Club Toutatis, Kustavi, Finland are mourning is over. We are hoping to have pictures of this amazing survivor Comet. We will definitely follow the craze of this all in the Space community.
We hope the Comet have not shed all it's material and will continue to brighten up for a spectacular show this December 2013.

Here are some links from the Space community:
Elizabeth Howell on Universe Today 
Space weather.com
NASA's webpage
Video of the SOHO Coronograph with Babak Tafreshi


About Astronomy Club Toutatis

C 2012/S1 ISON Comet suicide

Comet ISON, imaged by longtime amateur astrophotograper
Damian Peach in the U.K. He used a 17-inch telescope
for 12 minutes of combined exposures on November 15th.
Credit: Damian Peach/SkyandTelescope.com

View full size image

28.11.2013 Comet ISON plunges to its death.
Astronomy CLub Toutatis here in Kustavi Finland is in mourning.

The Comet C/2012 S1 ISON was discovered on 21 September 2012 by Vitali Nevski (Виталий Невский, Vitebsk, Belarus) and Artyom Novichonok (Артём Новичонок, Konudopoga, Russia).

Comet ISON hype started a few months back and was getting momentum. As C/2012 S1 came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 28 November 2013 at a distance of 0.0124 AU (1,860,000 km; 1,150,000 mi) from the center point of the Sun. Its trajectory was to close to the Sun and burned out.

Here at the club we anticipated its position in the sky, wanted to take telescopic photos of it, wide shot with its fabulous tail in the Sunset-Sunrise sky. Also Animations of the comet was in our plans. But guess what...
We are mourning. Lots of planning with no result. The only thing I can see a positive side to it, we saw a chunk of rock falling into the Sun, there sure is some science in that right?

Even if we didn't have no photographic results, the planning in its self was a great challenge and a valuable practice for our future observations.

So what have we learn here?
Preparation is never for nothing. We still learned a lot from a comet and now have a better grasp of other incoming comets in the near future. Personally it was great to follow this celestial body. Because of comet ISON i know now more about our solar system mechanics and for this reason I will never forget this name: Comet ISON.

Never forget this name:
The comet's formal designation is C/2012 S1. The "C" indicates that it is non-periodic, followed by the year of discovery. The "S" represents the half-month of discovery—in the case of C/2012 S1, the second half of September—and the number "1" shows that this was the first comet found in that half month. The comet is named "ISON" after the organization where its discovery was made, the Russia-based International Scientific Optical Network. The initial report of the object to the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams identified the object as an asteroid, and it was listed on the Near Earth Objects Confirmation Page. Follow-up observations by independent teams were the first to report cometary features. Therefore, under the International Astronomical Union's comet-naming guidelines, the comet is named after the team that discovered it, rather than the individual discoverers.

Follow other links in the community about Comet C/2012 S1 ISON:
Elizabeth Howell on Universe Today.com
On Space Weather.com 
Google + The Space Community



About Astronomy Club Toutatis, Kustavi, Finland

Astro-Club Toutatis NEW Animations! Have a look!

 Kustavi, Finland

New Animations of our Astro-Club!
The post processing and the hours spent outside looking at
great events has paid off!

Please visit our Timelapses and Animations page and enjoy!
Timelapses and Animations


About Astronomy Club Toutatis