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Photo Credit COVER UP? Comet I-son may be as big as a dwarf sun!
A comet is heading for a close encounter with the sun later this month, and if it is not vaporized or torn apart, it should be visible to the naked eye in December.
Comet ISON is expected to pass just about 621,000 miles (1 million km) from the sun’s surface on Nov. 28.
Scientists are not sure how ISON will hold up. As it blasts around the sun, traveling at 234 miles per second (377 km per second) the comet will be heated to about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees C), hot enough to vaporize not just ice in the comet’s body, but also rock and metal.
If the heat does not kill ISON, the sun’s gravity may rip it apart. But recent calculations show ISON will survive, scientists say.
The comet was discovered in September 2012 by two amateur astronomers using Russia’s International Scientific Optical Network, or ISON, for which the comet is named.
Published on Oct 30, 2013
Comet I-son happen to pass by planet Mars just as the government was shut down. Scientist were not allowed to even see the comet then. There are seven strange things about Comet I-son you have not been told! This video will tell you all of them