Approaching comet may outshine the moon

A comet blazing toward Earth could outshine the full moon when it passes by at the end of next year - if it survives its close encounter with the sun.
The recently discovered object, known as comet ISON, is due to fly within 1.2 million miles (1.9 million km) from the center of the sun on November 28, 2013 said astronomer Donald Yeomans, head of NASA's Near Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. www.newsdaily.com... This will be a sight to see.. If your a sky watcher this is one of those you can't miss deals. Oh and I'm sorry if this is not the right place to post this.

There is a space forum. Hopefully a mod will move this thread there.

Can't wait til the end of this year to see this comet. I read about this the other day. You will be able to see this comet in the daytime, and will be brighter than the moon at night. That will be a once-in-a-lifetime event to witness.

This topic has kind of already been posted anyway if you'd use the search function and find it, that's what it's there for.

Originally posted by Myomistress
This topic has kind of already been posted anyway if you'd use the search function and find it, that's what it's there for.

Yep. Here:

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here:

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here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

here:

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here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...





whew....

I wonder what kind of effect this will have on crops

Originally posted by _BoneZ_
There is a space forum. Hopefully a mod will move this thread there.

Well BoneZ, depending how this ends, this might be the appropriate category after all.

It still amazes me how they can calculate these comets with such precision when they can't even predict the weather accurately.

reply to post by Human_Alien

There is one influence on the orbit of a comet (in the near term). Gravity. And it doesn't change.
There are many, many influences on weather. And they all change, all the time.

Originally posted by _BoneZ_
There is a space forum. Hopefully a mod will move this thread there.

Can't wait til the end of this year to see this comet. I read about this the other day. You will be able to see this comet in the daytime, and will be brighter than the moon at night. That will be a once-in-a-lifetime event to witness.

Yeah, alongside the other 5-10 threads on this comet ups, just seen your next post..

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by Human_Alien

 

There is one influence on the orbit of a comet (in the near term). Gravity. And it doesn't change.
There are many, many influences on weather. And they all change, all the time.

I said I was amazed, not dumbfounded. Taking away the variables that make this possible as you point out and I knew....it still amazes me how something so far away can be predicted with almost balls-on accuracy.
Please allow me to relish in the amazement, 'k?
Welcome back Phage. You were missed. Not by me of course but by others

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by Human_Alien

 

There is one influence on the orbit of a comet (in the near term). Gravity. And it doesn't change.
There are many, many influences on weather. And they all change, all the time.

what are you saying?
that there's no chance of this comet smacking into a random, undetected space rock?

or splitting?

LL

that is always "possible" using the space to object ratio, ultra improbable, mass, speed, trajectory, composition, all play a role in this, but this object has probally been in its "route" for billions of years, It will be quite a show, oh, and sorry phage, was not cutting line.

Ok I'm going with the the whole "there's no such thing as a dumb question" thing here.

Is the comet going to take a trip around the sun before we get to see it? And if so is there any chance it could melt and we won't get to see it at all?

I think this will be really cool to watch and it's nice that it's supposed to be around for awhile so you'll have more then 1 chance to see it.

reply to post by RN311
In the vacuum of space travelling at a rate of speed an object made of solid ice will not melt only deform due to heat. there is no evaporation. it will change shape. my question is what is its elements, chances are it has encountered a star or two before. My universe theories would get me commited, so I wont go there, but this object needs to have a NASA built stowaway attached to it, so much we could learn...

reply to post by teslahowitzer


Yes comets melt (sublimate).

That is how the tail is formed, the solar radiation melts the "ice" and it turns into gas, expelling from the comet mixed with dust and rock to form the tail. (This is also the reason for most meteor showers as we pass through the debris left behind.)

reply to post by woogleuk

Then a comet is a dissapating ice cube then, thanks, how the heck does a frozen blob get on a path that tours the galaxy? once it is at speed, it it guided by gravitational forces, wonder what kicks it off? and as it loses mass, it must eventually die out to nothing, thoughts?

Originally posted by teslahowitzer
reply to post by RN311

 

In the vacuum of space travelling at a rate of speed an object made of solid ice will not melt only deform due to heat. there is no evaporation. it will change shape. my question is what is its elements, chances are it has encountered a star or two before. My universe theories would get me commited, so I wont go there, but this object needs to have a NASA built stowaway attached to it, so much we could learn...

Yes, it will sublimate, and be driven away from the comet by solar wind and light pressure, thus forming the tail of the comet. Probably not melt, at least not until it gets pretty close to the sun. Probably hasn't encountered another star. It sat in the Oort cloud and now it's dropping by to say "goodbye"

edit to add: whoops, someone got it the very next post. Look up "Oort cloud" - there are a lot of icy masses at the edges of the system that are tossed in by something, probably a distant planetary body we haven't spotted yet.

Yes, they "wear out" due to loss, sometimes they break into multiple masses, and a lot of them are the causes of meteor showers.

Does it not depend on what is frozen inside it? If there are large pieces of debris inside which get melted out by our sun, then we should be in for one or two large bone-shaking experiences.

As has been said, these meteor showers are the result of comets passing by and (as I understand it) the debris hitting earths atmosphere and burning up.

The larger pieces dont fully burn up in the atmosphere and reach the surface as our meteor rocks. I guess it depends on how large the piece starts out to be and the angle of entry into the atmosphere as to whether a piece gets burnt up or not.

There could be any old rubbish frozen in there and could be aliens spacecraft waste ejected - like our aeroplanes dumping their waste but on a cosmic level.

reply to post by qmantoo


There was an Arthur C Clarke short story about an expedition to watch a close flyby of a comet, and when it went by, it was a smashed up alien spaceship. The end of the story was something like "400 years from now, when it comes by again, we'll be waiting for it"

reply to post by Bedlam

Thanks for setting me straight on that, water is the main substance for life, and one wonders, if somewhere life was really started as a comet impacting a planet. there could have been millions of them in our galaxy long ago and is it wrong to theorize that a comet was the kickoff to life on earth? with of course some ID intervention.

reply to post by teslahowitzer


That is a popular theory that life on Earth came here on comets.

Here is a recent article:

New Evidence That Comets Deposited Building Blocks of Life On Primordial Earth