New Comet: C/2012 S1 (ISON)

Here's the reason for that.

And here is effectively part one of that "series"

A little reality-check: Comet ISON: Why All the Fuss?

I was looking at the stereo a and b Orbit Viewer and noticed that on December 31, 2013 ISON, after it's encounter with the Sun, is located close to Mars orbit.
ORBIT VIEWER

However, when I look on the Anticipated STEREO observations of Comet ISON LINK
it shows that on December 31, 2013 Earth is going to have a very close encounter with ISON.



I am probably doing something wrong as I have no experience in using either of these sites, but it looks strange that each site shows a completely different location for ISON.

reply to post by VeniVidi


Use the sliders to pan the view around, it's only a trick of the perspective. The Orbit Viewer and your pictures (your second link doesn't work) show exactly the same thing: Dec 31st ISON will be almost directly above Earth. It won't be near Mars orbit on that date.

reply to post by Conceals


Yeah but what if in 3500 years the comet comes back around and blame.

So, it does come closer to Earth than we hear, generally....OK.....
...the last orbit simulation I saw had it wayy out of the Earths path....now we see something different
...
It could sqeek just a tiny bit over during the sling-around and look out....it could cause mens hearts to fail them....

Originally posted by GBP/JPY
So, it does come closer to Earth than we hear, generally....OK.....

...the last orbit simulation I saw had it wayy out of the Earths path....now we see something different
...
It could sqeek just a tiny bit over during the sling-around and look out....it could cause mens hearts to fail them....

edit on 1-9-2013 by GBP/JPY because: Yahuweh...the coolest of names, I swear

It will be at almost 66 million km away from Earth on that date. That's 0.44 AU or almost half the distance from Earth to the Sun. That's pretty far away, if you ask me.

ISON's closest approach to Earth will be on 26 December, at about 0.429 AU (64,200,000 km; 39,900,000 mi). That's also very far.

JPL orbit diagram and other stuff

reply to post by wildespace


Thanks Wildespace! I knew I must have been looking at it wrong. The picture I posted was a screen capture from Anticipated STEREO observations of Comet ISON. It just looked so close to Earth in that capture.