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ISON! Approaches Its Big Day in the Sun. Is There a Coronal Mass Ejection Heading for the Comets? Stay tuned! (Video)
Skywatchers excited as Comet ISON approaches its big day in the sun!
November 22, 2013
“There are some really, really nice tail dynamics going on.”
As Comet ISON approaches its climactic Thanksgiving swing around the sun, astronomers are getting increasingly excited about the prospects for a memorable show when it comes around the other side.
“It’s looking pretty wonderful, to be honest,” Naval Research Laboratory astrophysicist Karl Battams, who’s part of the NASA Comet ISON Observing Campaign, told NBC News. “It’s behaving in terms of its brightness pretty much how we thought it would back in February.”
Comet ISON has been sparking stellar expectations ever since its discovery by Russian astronomers in September 2012. But unlike some comet fans, Battams has shied away from predicting it would turn into the “comet of the century.” Instead, he favors the saying attributed to veteran comet hunter David Levy: “Comets are like cats; they have tails, and they do precisely what they want.”
So far, Comet ISON appears to be doing what Battams and his colleagues want: It’s hanging together, and not breaking up as feared. Fresh imagery from NASA’s STEREO-A probe shows the comet in one piece — with Comet Encke’s tail waving in the solar wind as it approaches its own close encounter.
