Group items tagged

Comets skimming past the sun may seem like ill-fated cosmic snowballs, and a team of scientists is trying to figure out what makes some fizzle and others explode as they make their solar death dives

may yield clues

origins of the solar system

we could have the first naked eye comet of 2013 for northern hemisphere observers in early March

if it performs

The projected brightness curve

predictions

concerning the uncertain future of Comet ISON

supported by the most recent optical observation

Seeing Comet ISON: A telescope guide

If you really want to try to see Comet ISON for yourself, you'll need two things

A dark sky.

This October, a comet will brush

giving scientists a chance to study how it possibly interacts with a planetary atmosphere

an impact of the comet on the surface of the Red Planet has long been ruled out

n 2005, after NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft had completed its objective of slamming an impactor probe into the nucleus of Comet Tempel 1, mission scientists began plotting their next move.

spacecraft that had released the probe and documented its cometary collision was intact, with fuel to spare, leaving it well equipped to rendezvous with another comet in the inner solar system

Comets preserve some of the primordial materials from the early solar system

Jupiter's powerful gravity can help supercharge a meteor shower caused by trailing chunks of the famed Halley's comet, a new study suggests

Every October, skywatchers are treated to a dazzling show when the Orionid meteors — leftover bits of Halley's comet

The Orionids are incredibly active from time to

After almost 9 years in space

July 4th impact and subsequent flyby of a comet, an additional comet flyby, and the return of approximately 500,000 images of celestial objects

NASA’s Deep Impact/EPOXI mission has officially been brought to a close.

scientists have been watching through many observatories to see if the comet has already broken up under the intense heat and gravitational forces of the sun

The comet is too far away to discern how many pieces it is in, so instead researchers carefully measure how bright it is,

Less light can sometimes mean that more of the material has boiled off and disappeared, perhaps pointing to a disintegrated comet

On October 23, 2013,  astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey picked up a very faint asteroid with an unusual orbit more like a that of a comet than an asteroid

 At the time 2013 UQ4 was little  more than a stellar point with no evidence of a hazy coma or tail that would tag it as a comet

On May 7,

just about three months ago that the astronomy world watched in awe as the recently-discovered comet Lovejoy plummeted toward the Sun on what was expected to be its final voyage, only to reappear on the other side seemingly unscathed

headed back out into the solar system, displaying a brand-new tail for skywatchers in southern parts of the world

How did a loosely-packed ball of ice and rock manage to withstand such a close pass through the Sun’s blazing corona

the latest orbital plot places the comet’s closest approach to Mars slightly closer than previous estimates

new data now significantly reduces the probability the comet will impact the Red Planet, JPL said, from about 1 in 8,000 to about 1 in 120,000.

The closest approach is now estimated at about 68,000 miles (110,000 kilometers). The most previous estimates had it whizzing by at 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers).

A comet that shines as brightly as the stars of the Big Dipper could be heading our way in March

the Comet Pan-STARRS is expected to whiz by about 100 million miles from Earth, skimming the orbit of Mercury, early next month.

could fail to put on a dazzling show if it falls apart under the intense heat and gravitational pull of its plunge toward the sun

The comet entered Earth's atmosphere above Egypt about 28 million years ago

As it entered the atmosphere, it exploded, heating up the sand beneath it to a temperature of about 2 000 degrees Celsius

resulting in the formation of a huge amount of yellow silica glass which lies scattered over a 6 000 square kilometre area in the Sahara

Comet. No, not Comet PANSTARRS, which is due to shine in the sky next March, perhaps rivalling the fondly-remembered Comet Hale Bopp from 1996

initial calculations of its orbit show it will pass ridiculously close to the Sun next November

Although Comet ISON looks promising, very promising in fact, it’s very early days. It needs to be observed a lot more before we know exactly what’s in store for us

Halley's Comet

In 1910, the Earth passed through the tail of Halley's Comet, the most intimate contact between the Earth and any comet in recorded history. The event was anticipated with dire predictions. Since a few years earlier, astronomers had found the poisonous gas cyanogen in a comet, it was surmised that if Earth passed through the comet's tail everyone would die. Astronomers explained that the gas molecules within the tail were so tenuous that absolutely no ill effects would be noticed. Nevertheless, ignorance bred opportunists selling "comet pills" to the panicked portion of the public to counter the effects of the cyanogen gas. On 20 May, after Earth had passed through the tail, everyone was still alive - with or without taking pills!

Original mission: International Sun/Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3)

to investigate solar-terrestrial relationships at the outermost boundaries of the Earth's magnetosphere

to examine in detail the structure of the solar wind near the Earth and the shock wave that forms the interface between the solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere

In July 1994, the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 plowed into Jupiter

The comet also left behind

millions of gallons of water. Water from the impact still makes up at least 95 percent of the water in the planet’s upper atmosphere

The dramatic appearance of Halley's comet in the night sky has been observed and recorded by astronomers since 240 BC. Now a study shows that the orbital influences of Jupiter on the comet and the debris it leaves in its wake are responsible for periodic outbursts of activity in the Orionid meteor showers. The results will be presented by Aswin Sekhar at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester on Tuesday 27th March.

right now, is that comet ISON is doing just fine! It continues to behave like a fairly typical, if somewhat smaller-than-average

Any reports to the contrary are just speculation

You can also keep tabs on Comet ISON from SpaceWeather.com’s Comet ISON Realtime Gallery