Jan 16
Trying to orbit a comet as it rockets through space is no easy task—but that’s just what the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft is poised to do
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Nov 30
Many assumed it was dead, but NASA has published a new video showing comet ISON surviving its close encounter with our home star on November 28, 2013, getting launched by the Sun’s gravity into a new lap around the solar system. It’s cool too watch. See you soon, Silver Surfer!
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Nov 29
We humans can form curious attachments to non-living things, so when Comet Ison veered recklessly toward the sun, naturally we rooted for the plucky iceball. Unfortunately, scientists feared the worst after seeing it mostly vanish when it brushed past the sun’s corona. Cue the heroic music, though, as new footage released early today (after the break) shows that at least part of the 1.4 mile-wide comet has emerged from the brutal encounter. It’s looking a bit ragged after all that, so astronomers will have to wait a bit more to make a final call on its health. Hopefully it’ll still be classed as “comet” rather than “scorched hunk of rock.”
Source: BBC
Nov 29
Yesterday, comet Ison flew close to the Sun
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Nov 28
Comet ISON is inching ever closer to the Sun, and it’ll get incredibly close later on today. In the meantime, though, you can watch its most recent progress in this video from NASA.
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Nov 21
It’s been a while since we talked about the comet ISON. We mentioned back in January that if the comet survives its brush with the sun later this month, it could be the brightest comet seen in hundreds of years. So far, the comet has remained intact as it heads towards its closest rendezvous with the Sun on November 28.
If the comet survives its brush with the Sun, it will head back out of our solar system and pass the Earth again. On its return trip away from the Sun, the comet will be so bright that some scientists believe we will be able to see it during the day. The last time a comet was so bright it could be seen during the day was in 1680.
Scientists are saying that ISON has the potential to be the “comet of the century.” ISON is already bright enough to be seen with the naked eye at night in some locations. If the comet survives, it will be at its brightest in early December.
[via Telegraph]
Nov 15
Mike Hankey has captured this extraordinary photo of the comet ISON, which is experiencing some surprising activity as it approaches the Sun. It’s so perfect it seems unreal. ISON was discovered only a year ago and it’s now observable in the night sky.
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Oct 27
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), launched in 1995, stares mostly at . . . yeah. The sun. But when its instruments are trying to image other things near the sun, all that light gets kind of overwhelming. So sometimes instruments on the SOHO just block the sun out and turn their attention to other things. Like this sungrazer comet.
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Sep 21
After more than eight years, NASA’s comet-hunting Deep Impact mission has come to an abrupt close. The agency has stopped trying to communicate with the mission probe after losing contact on August 8th. It’s not clear what went wrong, but NASA suspects that it may have lost orientation control, guaranteeing that the Deep Impact vehicle would lose power and freeze. It’s going out on a good note, however. Like NASA’s Mars rovers, Deep Impact easily outlasted its intended lifespan — after successfully intercepting the comet Tempel 1 in 2005, it went on to study three more comets as well as numerous exoplanets. We’ll miss the probe’s continued research, but its legacy should live on through other projects.
Source: NASA
Sep 11
Scientists Realize Massive Near-Earth Asteroid Is Actually a Comet after Three Decades
Posted in: Today's ChiliThis story proves that sometimes even really smart people get things horribly wrong. For the last 30 years, astronomers have believed that a massive object known as Don Quixote was a near-Earth asteroid. In fact, the object was classified as the third largest near-Earth asteroid. The problem is scientists have recently realized it’s not an asteroid at all. Don Quixote is actually a comet.
The orbit of the comet skirts the Earth and goes all the way close to the orbit of Jupiter. Some believed that Don Quixote was a dead comet, but recently the scientists realized that it has a faint coma and tail. This comet activity has gone undetected for 30 years.
Scientist David Trilling from Northern Arizona University says that Don Quixote is “sopping wet” with large deposits of carbon dioxide and water ice. The comet measures about 11 miles long. Some scientists believe that comets rich in water ice such as Don Quixote could possibly be the source of water here on earth.
[via ASDNews]
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