Comet - ISON : 2012 - 2013 (Age: ~ 4.5 Billion Years)

Well... its all over for COMET ISON; we got to pull off our EYES ON ISON. I feel dejected and curse myself that why did I chose the title on a day (27th November) before the comet was to meet its penultimate day of sun encounter (perihelion) having an age of around 4.5 billion years, " ISON LOST TO SUN" . We all hoped that ISON would survive, hoping that it will offer a dazzling display in the winter dawns; here in INDIA, we thought that we can educate people and encourage them to come out and watch the COMET... alas.. it is no more.

The central idea of this post is taken from Karl Battams ( LINK ), an expert on comets; who had spent sleep less nights during Thanksgiving holidays. Sky and Telescope realized that the real time science is incredibly thrilling; they found a huge spike in their web traffic (read the obituary). The comet scientist, Karl Battams had opened a twitter account (@sungrazerComets) and couldn't believe himself that he will end up having thousands of followers.

Referring to Battams...

The ISON, having born some 4.5-billion years (remember 9-zeros after 4 !!!) among dust some where in Oort's cloud and wondering around could have had its fate changed and pushed around in such a way that it was to turn into a sun grazing class. ISON got known to earthlings on 21st September 2012 (vow... my date of birth). Re-kindled enormous interest among all the amateur astronomers down to a common man (the mango man, an Indian phrase) to the extent of becoming a comet of century class.

Please dont be disheartened, you can certainly make use of your binoculars/telescopes and look for another comet LoyeJoy which is certainly not a very popular one; but lets not discriminate; lets keep the scientific temperament alive.. here we go.. LINK

ISON lived a wonderful, unpredictable life; kept every enthusiast on their toes. Hang on... as per Battams, the ISON got split into billions of pieces.. it will certainly lit up our skies in the form meteor shower. It kept thousands and thousands of people awake following the twitterati ... We all loved you ISON...

Please pay your last homage here:

The RISE and FALL of ISON
Credit : NASA; SOHO image

Has Comet ISON lost to SUN ???

ISON... the so called Comet of the Century.. has rekindled enormous interest among amateur astronomers and a well informed net savvy citizens for an "expected" bright display of its TAIL. A country like India, which has just launched its MOM (Mars Orbiter Mission) into the earth's orbit and its group of smart scientists/engineers are planning to sling MOM into Trans Mars Insertion orbit after 2-days also had great expectations from ISON comet. This would offer an opportunity to educate the elders, middle aged (country side living) generation (more) and the entire nation (in general) to shed their superstitions on comets. I vaguely remember, as a child, my grand mother locking all of us in a room so that we can not see the comet in the early morning. That could have been Ikeya-Seki in 1965, which gave a brilliant display on its post perihelion journey.

Today it is 28th November, 2013.. the poor ISON is just within the sun's diameter distance reaching at its perihelion; facing the fierce face of SUN literally.

NOW THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION IS ..

WILL COMET ISON EMERGE OUT WITHOUT LOOSING ITS IDENTITY, HAVING CROSSED THE ROASTING PAN OF AROUND 3,000 C ..????? 

The reason in opting for the above title is that the pendulum of its fate seems to be swinging in that direction.

If it does emerge as the winner without loosing to sun; its going to put up a spectacular show in the eastern skies during the dawn of 1st, 2nd weeks of December.

Courtesy http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/232699581.html 

Having involved with some activities of popularizing  EYES on ISON  an initiative taken by a large community of scientists and other enthusiasts in India; I have been following all the posts/reports by experts which are appearing across the net. The idea is to get the latest on finding answer to the above question.

As the ISON comet approached SUN; on Nov. 23,  the news of Comet loosing its nucleus emerged. Sky and Telescope was getting the latest from various sources link:

Alan MacRobert, a senior editor of Sky & Telescope magazine, commented that "We might witness a fine, long-tailed comet visible to the naked eye that will leave millions of people with fond memories for a lifetime",  OR "maybe it will be a small comet for sky hunters using binoculars and a good map of its position. Or it might yet break up and vanish."

A comets trajectory can easily be estimated by astronomers upon its sighting; if the comet turns out to be of sun-grazing type (as is the case of ISON); predicting on whether the comet will emerge out as a winner after its journey around the SUN is a most difficult question to answer.

To quote few interesting examples (from Sky and telescope) on whether a COMET will emerge out as a bright object (verbatim):

Some Sun-grazers have performed better than expected, such as Comet Ikeya-Seki in 1965 and Comet Lovejoy C/2011 W3 in 2011. Many experts predicted that the nucleus of the 2011 Comet Lovejoy would disintegrate during its very close pass by the Sun that December, but it survived long enough before breaking up to produce a spectacular long tail easily visible for people in the Southern Hemisphere.

“All of us at Sky & Telescope are hoping that Comet ISON will be a glorious spectacle in December,” says Sky & Telescope editor in chief Robert Naeye. “But we also remember past comet flops such as Comet Kohoutek in 1974, which was actually a fairly nice comet but unfortunately fell far short of the hype. It’s important for the media to emphasize the unpredictable nature of comets, and that it’s by no means guaranteed that ISON will turn into a show-stopping comet later this year, or even one that most people will see at all without good charts and optical aid.” 

Today, it is 28th November: A Times of India report (link) quoting few experts (from USA) has come up with a bright hope of ISON still having its identity intact and keeping alive the hopes of spectacular appearances in the weeks to follow.

While the latest update on Sky and Telescope ( link ) too supporting the above observations that the newer observations from the space craft have shown that ISON is still intact; not showing the signs of "turning OFF" as believed by Nov-23rd observations.

I WISH ISON WINS (as the recent NASA image at the bottom shows); 
                       SO THAT I CAN REPENT ON CHOOSING THIS TITLE....


WHERE TO LOOK:
As I wind up this post,  lets hope that we get to see a spectacular ISON re-appearing on the dawn skies in Dec. 1st and and 2nd week... here is Where you got to look upto:

Courtesy : Sky and Telescope

Stunning Image of ISON's leap into the SUN, NASA-image; (taken by ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) 

It is coronagraph, the bright light of the sun itself is blocked so the structures around it are visible. The comet is seen in the lower right; a giant cloud of solar material, called a coronal mass ejection or CME, is seen billowing out under the sun. 


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Today, 29th November:
Again excerpts from : Sky and telescope : Follow twitter : #ISON, #willitbreakup 

The SOHO images (at the bootom) seems to suggesting:
"It is now clear that Comet ISON either survived or did not survive, or . . . maybe both," tweeted Bruce Betts of the Planetary Society.

Carey Lisse, a comet specialist at JHU's Applied Physics Laboratory, comments, "It is very possible you are seeing ISON's trail shedding mass and emitting small particles. Another, less likely possibility, is that the comet fragmented into a number of bigger pieces, like Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 [which struck Jupiter in 1994], and they are emitting dust. The post-perihelion dust fan we are seeing now is what you would expect from dust experiencing solar radiation pressure and gravity forces while making a U-turn around the Sun at perihelion."

Has Comet ISON completely disintegrated? This view from the SOHO spacecraft's wide-angle (C3) coronagraph, taken about 7 hours after the perihelion, shows (above center) what looks to be a renewed and rather substantial coma around whatever remains of its nucleus.

NASA / ESA / SOHO Consortium