Despite dire predictions to the contrary, recent reports say that Comet ISON is still “doing just fine” and “holding it together.”
I think I’m growing to love this little comet.
Latest Images of Comet ISON Show it is ‘Doing Just Fine’
Universe Today
October 11, 2013
As we reported yesterday, the latest data on Comet ISON indicates there is some encouraging news as far as the Comet surviving perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun. While some are all doom and gloom about the potential for Comet ISON putting on a good show, these latest images indicate that as of now, this comet is alive and doing well!
“We really do not know what comet ISON is going to do when it gets near the Sun,” wrote astronomer Karl Battams of the Comet ISON Observing Campaign website. “But what we can say for certain, right now, is that comet ISON is doing just fine! It continues to behave like a fairly typical, if somewhat smaller-than-average, Oort Cloud comet. It has given no indication that it has fragmented and while such an event can never be ruled out, we see no evidence or hint that the comet is in any imminent danger of doing so. Any reports to the contrary are just speculation.”
Hubble Confirms Comet ISON Is Holding It Together
Discovery
October 17, 2013
Despite speculation to the contrary, Comet ISON is holding its own against the sun’s heat, with its cometary nucleus apparently remaining as a solid mass.
New observations carried out by the Hubble Space Telescope on Oct. 9 have resolved the interplanetary traveler with a beautifully smooth coma (the dust and gas around the “head” of the comet) with a bright tail swept back.
The comet — which was discovered in September 2012 by the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON), near Kislovodsk, Russia — is believed to be a pristine cometary nucleus that has fallen from the hypothetical Oort Cloud — a reservoir of icy fragments left over from the birth of the solar system. It is reckoned that this “shell” of proto-comets is located around 1 light-year away from the sun.
As this is its first visit to the inner solar system, astronomers theorized that ISON’s nucleus might fragment as it becomes heated by the sun’s energy. Looking at this image, there appears to be no abnormalities in the comet’s coma that would reveal fragmentation.
Interestingly, as noted by a Space Telescope Science Institute news release, a polar jet of dust projecting from ISON’s nucleus seen in Hubble images taken in April is no longer visible and likely turned off.
ISON is due to make its closest pass to the sun on Nov. 28 and, should it survive the fiery encounter, the comet could become an impressive sight in nighttime and daytime skies when it makes closest approach with the Earth on Dec. 26.