RIP ISON; we hardly knew thee

[EagleFan]

Looks like the early indications are that it is not going to survive the trip past the sun. NASA is no longer seeing evidence of the comet now but only the debris trail. Hopefully it's just because of the angles but they don't seem to think that is the case.

[EagleFan]

Not sure who had a worse day; Comet ISON or the Packers?

[kcchief19]

Looks like ISON's death has been greatly exaggerated, or it went out with a bang. We've got a a tremendous bright light in the sky. Not sure if that's ISON, but I have no idea what else it could be. Bigger and brighter than any planet I've ever seen in the sky.

[EagleFan]

Only thing I've seen out there is Venus shining brightly.

Watched the NASA live tracking of it this afternoon as it got to the sun and it never re-appeared. Would like to think it made it but we wouldn't see it in the sky until the early morning hours they say (if it made it); and not really well until next week.

[kcchief19]

It could be Venus. It would make more sense for this light to be Venus. But it is ridiculously bright here.

Conflicting reports on ISON. It did not initially reappear but some reports suggest it has reappeared, is gaining brightness and may be redeveloping a tail.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

It could be Venus. It would make more sense for this light to be Venus. But it is ridiculously bright here.

Conflicting reports on ISON. It did not initially reappear but some reports suggest it has reappeared, is gaining brightness and may be redeveloping a tail.

I hope it made it, want to see the show in December.

There is one shot that looks ominous from what they were calling the Stereo footage from the crafts out past the sun. Shows the comet veer towards the sun and what looked like a solar flare hit it at the same time and a flash within the flare.

Though I an completely speculating.

[DanGarion]

Comet Ison LIVES!

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

COMET ISON LIVES (UPDATED): Cancel the funeral. Comet ISON is back from the dead. Yesterday, Nov. 28th, Comet ISON flew through the sun's atmosphere and appeared to disintegrate before the cameras of several NASA and ESA spacecraft. This prompted reports of the comet's demise. Today, the comet has revived and is rapidly brightening. Click to view a SOHO coronagraph movie of the solar flyby (updated Nov. 29 @ 1800 UT):



Before the flyby, experts had made many predictions about what might happen to the comet, ranging from utter disintegration to glorious survival. No one predicted both.

Karl Battams of NASA's Comet ISON Observing Campaign says, "[colleague] Matthew Knight and I are ripping our hair out right now as we know that so many people in the public, the media and in science teams want to know what's happened. We'd love to know that too! Right now, here's our working hypothesis:

"As comet ISON plunged towards to the Sun, it began to fall apart, losing not giant fragments but at least a lot of reasonably sized chunks. There's evidence of very large dust in the long thin tail we saw in the [SOHO coronagraph] images. Then, as ISON plunged through the corona, it continued to fall apart and vaporize, losing its coma and tail completely just like sungrazing Comet Lovejoy did in 2011. What emerged from the Sun was a small but perhaps somewhat coherent nucleus that has resumed emitting dust and gas for at least the time being."

Battams emphasizes that it is too soon to tell how big the remnant nucleus is or how bright the resurgent comet will ultimately become. "We have a whole new set of unknowns, and this ridiculous, crazy, dynamic and unpredictable object continues to amaze, astound and confuse us to no end. We ask that you please be patient with us for a couple of days as we analyze the data and try to work out what is happening."

Astrophotographer Babak Tafreshi has edited an HD video that compares views of ISON from both of SOHO's coronagraphs. "It seems the comet could become a naked eye object with several degrees of scattered tail by Dec 2nd or 3rd," he predicts. "It's not the comet of the century for sure, and fainter than the Lovejoy sungrazer in Dec. 2011, but an interesting imaging target is just a few nights away!"

[Apathetic Lurker]

Just useless PC games that MIGHT get one playthru....And some speakers that will probably take my lazy ass a few months to change out in my PC. Oh, and a Corel 6x Ultimate photo program that I just bought to have...

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

Just useless PC games that MIGHT get one playthru....And some speakers that will probably take my lazy ass a few months to change out in my PC. Oh, and a Corel 6x Ultimate photo program that I just bought to have...

Uh ...

[EagleFan]

Sweet, looks like it took longer to whip around the sun than they thought, or they had their lenses pointed at the wrong location.