NASA | How to Cook a Comet
NASA | How to Cook a Comet
Comet ISON shows off its tail in this three-minute exposure taken on Nov. 19, 2013 at 6:10 a.m. EST, using a 14-inch telescope located at the Marshall Space Flight Center.
Credit: NASA/MSFC/Aaron Kingery
“The comet is just nine days away from its close encounter with the sun; hopefully it will survive to put on a nice show during the first week of December,” NASA officials wrote of the image. “The star images are trailed because the telescope is tracking on the comet, which is now exhibiting obvious motion with respect to the background stars over a period of minutes.”
Comet ISON was first discovered by Russian amateur astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok in September 2012 with a remotely operated telescope in the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON). The comet is officially designated as C/2012 S1 (ISON).
On Nov. 28, Comet ISON will make its closest approach to the sun and come within 730,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) of the solar surface. The comet has drawn much attention from the public, stargazers and professional astronomers because of hopes that it might flare up into a so-called “comet of the century” after its sun flyby.
Editor’s note: If you snap an amazing picture of Comet ISON or any other night sky view that you’d like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to editor JayWill7497 at [email protected]
You can follow the latest Comet ISON news, photos and video on Before It’s News.com
Published on Nov 21, 2013
A comet’s journey through the solar system is perilous and violent. Before it reaches Mars – at some 230 million miles away from the sun – the radiation of the sun begins to cook off the frozen water ice directly into gas. This is called sublimation. It is the first step toward breaking the comet apart. If it survives this, the intense radiation and pressure closer to the sun could destroy it altogether.
Animators at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. created this short movie showing how the sun can cook a comet.
Such a journey is currently being made by Comet ISON. It began its trip from the Oort cloud region of our solar system and is now traveling toward the sun. The comet will reach its closest approach to the sun on Thanksgiving Day — Nov. 28, 2013 — skimming just 730,000 miles above the sun’s surface. If it comes around the sun without breaking up, the comet will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere with the naked eye, and from what we see now, ISON is predicted to be a particularly bright and beautiful comet.
Even if the comet does not survive, tracking its journey will help scientists understand what the comet is made of, how it reacts to its environment, and what this explains about the origins of the solar system. Closer to the sun, watching how the comet and its tail interact with the vast solar atmosphere can teach scientists more about the sun itself.
This video is public domain and can be downloaded at:http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?11384
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Be AWARE and be PREPARED, FEAR is not an option. Be safe everyone…
So NASA is saying that the comet tail is water vapor sublimated from layers of mixed ice and rock being lit up by solar radiation ?
If that were true then how come the tail always points away from the sun instead of following the track of the comet ?
and if that were true then how could the tail be millions of miles long in a straight line ?
and how can there be multiple tails in different directions ?
and how does the “dirty snowball” stay in the center of the coma if solar wind can push the tail that far away ?
and how come all up close photos of comets look like asteroids ?
NASA .. I think you need to go back to the whiteboard on this issue because the dirty snowball story just doesn’t hold it’s water !
(Cool picture though .. can’t wait to see it in the sky)