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