Dee Finney's blog october 6, 2012 page 326 THE BRIGHTEST COMET OF ALL TIME COMING

In this frame grab taken from enhanced video made by NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft, comet ISON,

left, approaches the sun on November 25, 2013. Comet Encke is shown just below ISON, the sun is to the right just outside the frame.

ISON, which was discovered a year ago, is making its first spin around the sun and will come closest to the

super-hot solar surface on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013, at 1:37 p.m. EST.

Comet Ison destroyed in Sun passage

STOCKHOLM (AP) - Once billed as the comet of the century, Comet ISON apparently was no match for the sun.

Scientists said images from NASA spacecraft showed the comet approaching for a slingshot around the sun on Thursday, but just a trail of dust coming out on the other end.

"It does seem like Comet ISON probably hasn't survived this journey," U.S. Navy solar researcher Karl Battams said in a Google+ hangout.

Phil Plait, an astronomer who runs the "Bad Astronomy" blog, agreed, saying "I don't think the comet made it."

Still, he said, it wouldn't be all bad news if the 4.5-billion-year-old space rock broke up into pieces, because astronomers might be able to study them and learn more about comets.

"This is a time capsule looking back at the birth of the solar system," he said.

The comet was two-thirds of a mile wide as it got within 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) of the sun, which in space terms basically means grazing it.

NASA solar physicist Alex Young said it would take a few hours to confirm ISON's demise, but admitted things were not looking good.

He said the comet had been expected to show up in images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft at around noon eastern time (1700 GMT), but almost four hours later there was "no sign of it whatsoever."

"Maybe over the last couple of days it's been breaking up," Young told The Associated Press. "The nucleus could have been gone a day or so ago."

Images from other spacecraft showed a light streak continuing past the sun, but Young said that was most likely a trail of dust continuing in the comet's trajectory.

"The comet itself is definitely gone, but it looks like there is a trail of debris," he said.

Some sky gazers speculated early on that it might become the comet of the century because of its brightness, although expectations dimmed as it got closer to the sun.

Made up of loosely packed ice and dirt, it was essentially a dirty snowball from the Oort cloud, an area of comets and debris on the fringes of the solar system.

Two years ago, a smaller comet, Lovejoy, grazed the sun and survived, but fell apart a couple of days later.

"That's why we expected that maybe this one would make it because it was 10 times the size," Young said.

"They are pretty rare," Young said. "So we might not see one maybe even in our lifetime."

CANCEL THE EULOGY: Comet ISON flew through the sun's atmosphere on Nov. 28th and the encounter did not go well for the icy comet. Just before perihelion (closest approach to the sun) the comet rapidly faded and appeared to disintegrate. This prompted reports of ISON's demise. However, a fraction of the comet has survived. Click on the image below to see what emerged from Comet ISON's brush with solar fire:

In the movie, Comet ISON seems to be falling apart as it approaches the sun. Indeed, researchers working with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory said they saw nothing along the track that ISON was expected to follow through the sun's atmosphere. Nevertheless, something has emerged. Whether this is a small scorched fragment of Comet ISON's nucleus or perhaps a "headless comet"--a stream of debris marking the remains of the comet's disintegrated core--remains to be seen.

The movie spans a day and a half period from Nov. 27th (01:41 UT) to 28th (15:22 UT). We see that Comet ISON brightened dramatically on Nov. 27th before fading on Nov. 28th. That brightening might have been a disintegration event, in which the comet cracked open and spilled its vaporizing contents into space.

In summary, we still don't know for sure what has happened to Comet ISON. Stay tuned for updates as more data arrive from NASA's fleet of solar observatories.Solar flare alerts: text, voice

WHICH SIDE OF THE SUN IS FACING COMET ISON? When Comet ISON sweeps through the sun's atmosphere on Nov. 28th, it will be in the 'hot zone' for CMEs. A strike by one of the massive storm clouds probably wouldn't destroy the comet, but it could have a dramatic effect on the comet's fragile tail. The odds of a strike depend on which side of the sun is facing the comet at the time of the flyby. This is something you can monitor using a NASA iPhone app called theInterplanetary 3D Sun:

Comet ISON near to its close approach to Mars, imaged together from the 2 meter Liverpool Telescope. Credit: Remanzacco Observatory/Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes, and Martino Nicolini/NSO Liverpool Telescope

Comet ISON made its closest approach to Mars yesterday (October 1, 2013) at a distance of 10.5 million km (6.5 million miles). While we await to find out if attempts to image the comet by spacecraft on the surface (update: those images are in—see them here) and in orbit of Mars were successful, astronomers from Earth were able to capture the two planetary bodies together.

You can see the two planetary bodies together in one image below from Ari Koutsouradis in Maryland, but the Remanzacco Observatory team obtained images of Comet ISON as it passed by Mars using the 2 meter Liverpool Telescope. This main image above consists of a stack of 20 exposures, 11 seconds each.

Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes and new team member Martino Nicolini produced this image, showing a "well developed coma and tail measuring at least 3 arc minutes," the trio wrote on their website.

This image, directly above, taken early this morning by Ari Koutsouradis in Maryland, shows both Mars and the comet in one image, although it highlights the relative distance between the two. Koutsouradis said via Flickr that the comet was not visible with an eyepiece on the scope, but the image stack did manage to bring it out.

During the observations by the Remanzacco team, they wanted to look to see if they could discern additional jet structures on the comet, which had been reported by other observers. Howes told Universe Today, however, the are still looking at their observations to analyze this.

"There was some debate as to the existence of additional jet structures on the comet," Howes said via email. "Our data analysis seems to show that some reports of this were possibly spurious, however, our one process does seem to show a possible small jet, which a 2m class instrument would be able to detect. Our analysis is undergoing additional review and peer checking with our collaborators in the USA. The scientific analysis of this comet and its inner coma is ongoing, and being monitored closely."

Update: Later in the day on October 2nd, The Remanzacco team obtained analysis from their U.S collaboration partners. Using their data from the 2m Liverpool telescope, and after processing by Dr. Nalin Samarasinha of the Planetary Science Institute, they have conclusively confirmed a sunward facing feature on Comet ISON. This feature has been seen in previous ISON observations and was also seen in observations with the Hubble Space Telescope.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-10-comet-ison-mars-imaged-approach.html#jCp

UPDATE 3-24-13 - BOTH MARS AND COMET 2012 (ISON) IS GOING BEHIND THE SUN WHERE WE CAN'T SEE THEM

THIS COMET IS GOING TO INTERACT WITH EVERY PLANET IT COMES NEAR, INCLUDING MERCURY, VENUS, AND MARS

THERE IS ALREADY AN ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE BETWEEN VENUS AND JUPITER AND THE COMET, AND A COMET TAIL SHOULD BE SEEN BEHIND VENUS AS WELL

THE NEW MOON WILL BE ON NOVEMBER 13, 2012 - LATE HURRICANE ACTIVITY MAY HAPPEN BECAUSE OF THE MOON

MARS WILL BE IN THE COMA OF THE COMET WHEN IT ARRIVES - THE ALIGNMENTS OF THE MOON WITH THE PLANETS AND THE COMET WILL CREATE A LOT OF ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE

WATCH FOR VENUS IN THE EARLY MORNING BEFORE THE SUN COMES UP - THERE IS A TRIANGULAR ALIGNMENT IN NOVEMBER AND THE NEW MOON

JANUARY 15, 2013 - THERE WILL BE EARTH ACTIVITY OF BAD WEATHER BECAUSE OF THE COMET COMBINED WITH THE NEW MOON ON JANUARY 13, 2013. THE 15TH AND 16TH WILL HAVE EARTH INTERACTION WITH THE COMET

MAY 22, 2013 WILL ALSO HAVE MERCURY ACTIVE WHILE THE COMET IS MOVING IN. THE COMET WILL BECOME EXCITED AS IT GETS CLOSER TO THE PLANETS AND THE SUN

IN AUGUST OF 2012 - WILL BE ANOTHER ALIGNMENT - WATCH AND SEE IF SOHO GETS SHUT DOWN DURING THIS PERIOD TO HIDE WHAT IS GOING ON

WE WILL SEE A LOT OF ACTIVITY BETWEEN THE COMET AND THE PLANETS DURING 2013 AND 2014

IT WILL BE IN DIRECT ALIGNMENT ELECTRICALLY WITH THE PLANETS ON JANUARY 13, 2013

WE HAVE MANY TELESCOPES ON EARTH TO SEE NEAR EARTH OBJECTS, BUT NO OR LITTLE INFORMATION GETS TO THE PUBLIC

AN ASTEROID IS SUPPOSED TO HIT ANTARTICA BUT NO INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE NOW - THE INFORMATION WAS PULLED FROM THE INTERNET AFTER IT WAS POSTED - THIS COULD HAPPEN BEFORE CHRISTMAS OF 2012

THE MAGNETIC FIELD OF EARTH COULD BE AFFECTED SERIOUSLY WHEN THE COMET GOES PAST

IT WILL GET VERY CLOSE TO MARS - WE WILL BE ABLE TO SEE MARS EARLY IN THE MORNING BEFORE THE SUN COMES UP

THE OLYMPUS MONS OF MARS STICKS UP PAST THE ATMOSPHERE OF MARS - LOOK FOR CHANGES THERE

RIGHT NOW WE DON'T KNOW HOW LARGE THIS COMET IS COMPARED TO MARS. WHICHEVER ONE IS LARGER WILL CAUSE MORE HAVOC THAN THE OTHER

PUERTO RICO HELD A SEMINAR FOR ALL ITS CITIZENS LAST WEEK TO PREPARE TO SAVE 5 YEARS WORTH OF FOOD AND WATER

THE QUESTION IS WHY? DOES PUERTO RICO KNOW SOMETHING THE REST OF HUMANITY DOES NOT?

WHEN COMET ELENIN CAME BY, THERE WAS A LOT OF HYPE ABOUT IT, BUT THIS COMET IS NOT GETTING ANY OF THAT

THE NASA SPACE PROGRAM HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN - ONLY PRIVATE RICH MEN ARE WORKING ON THE SPACE PROGRAMS NOW

NOTES: 1-25-13 - JUPITER AND THE COMET ARE NOW INTERACTING. THE COMET IS CURRENTLY IN THE ORBIT OF JUPITER.

I JUST PURCHASED SOME ASTRONOMICAL BINOCULARS FROM AMAZON.COM AS JAMES MCCANNEY RECOMMENDS. I ALSO GOT A TRIPOD BECAUSE BINOCULARS GET JIGGLY WHEN YOU HOLD THEM IN YOUR HANDS. THE TRIPOD WAS CHEAP. THE BINOCULARS ARE ON SALE - SO GET THEM EARLY.

A new comet has been discovered that is predicted to blaze incredibly brilliantly in the skies during late 2013. With a perihelion passage of less than two million kilometres from the Sun on 28 November 2013, current predictions are of an object that will dazzle the eye at up to magnitude —16. That's far brighter than the full Moon. If predictions hold true then C/2012 S1 will certainly be one of the greatest comets in human history, far outshining the memorable Comet Hale-Bopp of 1997 and very likely to outdo the long-awaited Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4) which is set to stun in March 2013.

The new comet, named C/2012 S1 (ISON) was found by the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) in Russia on 21 September when astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok captured it on CCD images taken through a 0.4-metre reflector. Its near-parabolic orbit suggests that it has arrived fresh from the Oort Cloud, a vast zone of icy objects orbiting the Sun, pristine remnants of the formation of the Solar System.

C/2012 S1 currently resides in the northwestern corner of Cancer. At magnitude +18 it is too dim to be seen visually but it will be within the reach of experienced amateur astronomers with CCD equipment in the coming months as it brightens. It is expected to reach binocular visibility by late summer 2013 and a naked eye object in early November of that year. Northern hemisphere observers are highly favoured. Following its peak brightness in late November it will remain visible without optical aid until mid-January 2014.

Comet brightness predictions sometimes exceed their performance. Amateur astronomers of a certain age may remember the Comet Kohoutek hype of 1973 – not quite the 'damp squib' it has been portrayed, since it reached naked eye visibility! Even if C/2012 S1 takes on the same light curve as Kohoutek it is certain to be spectacular, quite possibly a once-in-a-civilisation's-lifetime event.

Published on Sep 29, 2012 by dutchsinse

Coming next year -- currently between Jupiter and Saturn .. will be half as bright as the sun.. magnitude -16 !!!!! .. In perspective the sun is -26 .. hale-bopp was -1 .

http://sincedutch.wordpress.com/2012...r-comet-c2012-... see DUTCHSINSE VIDEO HERE

Andrew Fazekas

for National Geographic News

Published September 27, 2012

If astronomers' early predictions hold true, the holidays next year may hold a glowing gift for stargazers—a superbright comet, just discovered streaking near Saturn.

Even with powerful telescopes, comet 2012 S1 (ISON) is now just a faint glow in the constellation Cancer. But the ball of ice and rocks might become visible to the naked eye for a few months in late 2013 and early 2014—perhaps outshining the moon, astronomers say.

The comet is already remarkably bright, given how far it is from the sun, astronomer Raminder Singh Samra said. What's more, 2012 S1 seems to be following the path of the Great Comet of 1680, considered one of the most spectacular ever seen from Earth.

"If it lives up to expectations, this comet may be one of the brightest in history," said Samra, of the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, Canada.

So what makes a comet a showstopper? A lot depends on how much gas and dust is blasted off the central core of ice and rocks. The bigger the resulting cloud and tail, the more reflective the body may be.

Because 2012 S1 appears to be fairly large—possibly approaching two miles (three kilometers) wide—and will fly very close to the sun, astronomers have calculated that the comet may shine brighter, though not bigger, than the full moon in the evening sky.

(Also see "New Comet Found; May Be Visible From Earth in 2013.")

Refugee From the Edge of the Solar System?

First spotted late last week by Russian astronomers Artyom Novichonok and Vitali Nevski of the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON), comet 2012 S1 was confirmed by the International Astronomical Union on Monday.

But while we know what 2012 S1 is, it's still unclear where it came from. Its orbit suggests the comet may be a runaway from the Oort cloud, where billions of comets orbit about a hundred thousand times farther from the sun than Earth is.

"For astronomers, these distant origins are exciting," Samra said, "because it allows us to study one of the oldest objects in the solar system still in its original, pristine condition."

New Comet Bound for Glory?

Right now, 2012 S1 appears to be about 615 million miles (990 million kilometers) from Earth, between the orbits of Saturn and Jupiter, astronomers say.

As the sun's gravity pulls the comet closer, it should pass about 6.2 million miles (10 million kilometers) from Mars—possibly a unique photo opportunity for NASA's new Curiosity rover.

Current orbital predictions indicate the comet will look brightest to us in the weeks just after its closest approach to the sun, on November 28, 2013—if 2012 S1 survives the experience.

As the comet comes within about 1.2 million miles (2 million kilometers) of the sun, the star's intense heat and gravity could cause the ice and rubble to break apart, scotching the sky show. (Related: "Comet Seen Vaporizing in Sun's Atmosphere—A First.")

"While some predictions suggest it may become as bright as the full moon, and even visible during the day, one should be cautious when predicting how exciting a comet may get," Samra said.

"Some comets have been notorious for creating a buzz but failing to put on a dazzling display," he said. "Only time will tell."

More: See the first pictures of a peanut-like comet >>

Russian astronomers have discovered a new comet C/2012 S1 hurtling toward Earth. Astronomers say that the comet, a two-mile-wide lump of ice and rock, may be the brightest in history and may shine brighter than the Moon when it passes close to the Earth.

According to Space.com, Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok of the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) near Kislovodsk, Russia, discovered comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) on 21 September via images taken with a 40-centimeter reflecting telescope. The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts confirmed the discovery and announced it on 24 September.

According to National Geographic, astronomers say the comet is now approximately 615 million miles (990 million kilometers) from Earth, between the orbits of the two giant planets Saturn and Jupiter. Preliminary reports say the orbit will make its closest (perihelion) approach to the Sun on 28 November, 2013 at a distance of 0.012 AU (1,800,000 km; 1,100,000 mi) from the center-point of the Sun. Astronomers say the comet will pass approximately 1,100,000 kilometers (680,000 mi) above the Sun's surface.

National Geographic reports C/2012 S1 is expected to pass at about 6.2 million miles/10 million kilometers (0.07 AU (10,000,000 km; 6,500,000 mi) from Mars on October 1, 2013. This will allow NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars opportunity to snap pictures.

Astronomers at the Remanzacco Observatory, Italy have assured that the comet is not on collision course with Earth. They say C/2012 S1 "will get to within 0.012AU of the Sun at the end of November 2013 and then to ~0.4AU (about 37 million miles) from Earth at the beginning of January 2014."

However, it remains uncertain where the comet came from, although its orbit suggests it may have its origin in a spherical cloud of comets surrounding the solar system called the Oort Cloud where there are billions of other comets in orbit. Raminder Singh Samra of the H.R. MacMillan Space Center in Vancouver, Canada, said: "For astronomers, these distant origins are exciting because it allows us to study one of the oldest objects in the solar system still in its original, pristine condition."

Remanzacco Observatory, Italy

False color rendition of C/2012 S1 at its discovery in September 2012.

Remanzacco Observatory

This comet’s orbit will bring it near the sun in 2013 and by November 2013, it may actually outshine the Moon in the sky.

C/2012 S1 was observed close to Saturn and may still be observed with powerful telescopes as a faint glow in the constellation Cancer. It is expected to become visible to the naked eye beginning in 2013.

According to National Geographic, predictions of its orbital trajectory indicate that if it survives its close approach to the Sun, the comet will be brightest in the sky in November 28, 2013 as it moves away from the Sun. It will be visible during December after sunset and in the morning sky before sunrise. New Scientist reports that scientists at the Remanzacco Observatory say that by December 9 it should be about as bright as Polaris, the North Star, and should remain visible to the naked eye until mid-January 2014. According to Astronomy Now, the comet could become brighter than the full moon around its closest approach to the Sun.

Astronomers say that the orbit of C/2012 S1 is similar to that of the Great Comet of 1680, one of the brightest in history. Space.com reports that the Great Comet of 1680 was very bright in the sky and was visible even in daylight, throwing off a bright tail that spanned the western twilight sky. Some astronomers say that given the close orbital relationship between C/2012 S1 and the Great Comet of 1680, the objects may be the same.

Gizmodo reports that Samra, says "if it lives up to expectations, this comet may be one of the brightest in history." According to The National Geographic, the brightness of C/2012 S1, will depend on how much gas and dust is blasted off the central core of ice and rocks at its close approach to the Sun.The bigger the cloud and tail, the more reflective the comet, astronomers say.

However, Samra cautions: "While some predictions suggest it may become as bright as the full moon, and even visible during the day, one should be cautious when predicting how exciting a comet may get. Some comets have been notorious for creating a buzz but failing to put on a dazzling display. Only time will tell."

Gizmodo leaves a note for Mayan "doom-mongers":

"... and one last note to the Mayan death and doom-mongers: the universe apologizes but, despite its name, 2012 S1 is actually arriving in 2013 holiday season."

Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/333993#ixzz28ZPKwivf

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