Comet ISON sweeps near sun, shows signs of life

From watching the NASA Google+ feed yesterday, the actual live feed being watched would only see Oxygen being released from the Comet. This could explain why no one was able to pick up ISON until it started spewing Oxygen from its tail again.

I assume that the heat from the Sun just vaporized any oxygen that would be omitted being so close to the Sun and as soon as it got some distance away Oxygen again was being seen from SOHO.

Of course I have no idea if this is true or not but considering "death" of this Comet was agreed upon from everyone on the Google+ feed I am wondering why none of the experts would of thought of that factor.

reply to post by hoochymama23


Here's what the SDO article says regarding oxygen:

When SDO looks for a comet it does not see the dust and ion tails seen in a comet far from the Sun. We see oxygen ions, oxygen atoms with some electrons stripped off, glowing when they are hit by the hot electrons in the corona. The AIA telescopes normally look at iron ions, but the enormous amount of oxygen that comes off a comet allows that element to emit brighter for a while after the comet passes

If I understand the article correctly the oxygen is made more visible ('glowing') as a result of the heat from the sun. So I'm not sure that logic holds.

Just to clarify: SOHO was and is able to see ISON, the comet (or whatever remains of it) is still visible on the latest images from LASCO C3 (sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov...). The question is why it wasn't visible on SDO.

I think either the oxygen we would expect to come off a comet is actually a different element with ISON, or there is another element in addition to the usual oxygen involved in the make-up of ISON that caused it to react to the sun in a slightly different way. The fact that they refer to strange light-curve behavior and color filters, to my (again, almost entirely uneducated) mind speaks to an unusual elemental composition.

Would love to get some actual astronomy experts to weigh in though!

Got the two mixed up. It seemed that most of the discussion was around SDO but not sure which camera (or instrument) was used on the live feed. If SOHO was used, we should of seen it??

Either way, the Sun is Awesome in of itself. I almost dont really care about the Comet perse, but just seeing the Sun that way is incredible.

I believe there were basically two experts on the panel with two others joining periodically and they were all saying ISON must of disintegrated.

There has been a new thread started regarding NASA using a loop video instead of a live picture which could explain why nothing showed up during the exit of perihelion.

Interesting to say the least.

A tiny bit survived...so what? What is the relevance? We may or may not get to see something? It's no Hale Bopp.

reply to post by hoochymama23


They used SOHO to track the 'pre-approach' if you will, to know when to switch to SDN for the full view as it made its pass of the sun. Because it didn't appear on SDN when it was expected to, and after it had gone within the blocked out corona section of the SOHO images most people assumed it was destroyed, so the live Hangout sort of fizzled. Not that they really could have told us much or shown us much once it reappeared on the SOHO pictures.

Why is it interesting? It's one of only a handful of sun-grazing comets, and it's one that we've been able to observe very closely. It's also surprised the experts several times during the time we've been observing it, the last example of which is the fact that it was assumed dead by everybody then reappeared.

Frankly, I find any comet that comes close enough for us to see it interesting - but that's just me. Whether you like comets or not, this is without doubt an unusual, if not interesting comet.

reply to post by TheStev
Comets are interesting for sure, if only for the fact that one might hit us. The Lovejoy video they kept showing during the broadcast was crazy. Always thought Comets had a predictable orbit, but this thing was "moving everywhere". I guess a orbit off in Space means a different thing just because the Space is so big.

Showing the Stereo images of all four Comets that are being watched, showing them dodge and weave seems to be a concern.

I guess being caught in the tail of debris of these Comets might not be a good thing either. The speculation about the size of ISON still looks like its debatable though as the NASA experts kept saying "its dead" but low and behold its alive an well. With a much greater debris field than before.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the ramp up of Hostilities between China, Japan, and the US.

reply to post by Logman


Again, what part of anything actually appears to be "tiny".

Just glancing at it , it looks far larger than earth, just saying that it is ridiculous to say things like that.

RoScoLaz
reply to post by IkNOwSTuff

 

nobody's right all the time. not even god.

Actually the almighty or "God" is usually considered to be infallible by most organised religions, hence indeed "right all the time"! Just saying. LoL

daryllyn

I see A LOT of people giving phage a hard time because he said the comet was dead... but for quite a while... every single source available said that ISON didn't make it.

that's because at that time he was doing what he chastises others for doing- drawing a conclusion based on nothing but speculation. There was no data to conclude anything. And the reason why people give him a hard time when he is wrong or puts his foot in his mouth is because he is right most of the time regarding specific details (whether that detail is relevant to the gist of the topic is not important to him). Even still ,as smart as he is, he's still basically wrong on many of the alternative subjects' premises.

that's why he gets a hard time

Presumably though what happened was the suns gravitational field pulled Ison apart into tiny chunks, and all of those chunks would continue on their trajectory anyway, so it stands to reason that we might be able to see a few of those chunks?

As indeed it appears a fairly biggish chunk is still intact. Be interesting if they're able to get any measurements on how big some of the pieces are.

I fear it might be too small to put on a show though. And being pulled apart it's probably lost most of the gasses that would have made the display. But hey, fingers still crossed we might get to see something.

reply to post by Painterz


Like this quote, thought I'd through it out here.

A leading astronomer Tom Kerss said, “It would be an absolutely hellish environment, there’s never been a better time to use the words ‘snowball’s chance in hell”. Let’s wait for a few more days to find out as to what actually happens.

...I'm rooting for this spunky little guy. And cheesy too!

RIP ISON.....she seems to have just turned into a bunch of little ISONs Cheesy is the proud godfather of a bunch of little ISONs. www.spaceweather.com...

reply to post by rickymouse


Can you fix the link please? ...Doesn't work for me.

Thanks.

reply to post by soficrow


It worked when I clicked on it....Don't know why it doesn't work for you. Just type spaceweather.com onto the bar on top.

I feel like my life depends on ISON not disappearing. Anyone else feel the same thing?

Logman
A tiny bit survived...so what? What is the relevance? We may or may not get to see something? It's no Hale Bopp.

What's the significance of Hale Bopp? - it was just another comet like Halley's...

Yawn how boring. Too many comets coming through our solar system, they should feckoff because they're ALL so uninteresting and we can't learn anything from them - especially after they go round a Star and get smaller...

introspectionist
I feel like my life depends on ISON not disappearing. Anyone else feel the same thing?

Can't say I feel that way. Why are you making the connection? There was a lot of hype about ISON, but there was a lot of hype about other events like 2012 as well. I guess I can't blame you, people have looked for signs in the stars forever, I can't say I have much faith in that technique of understanding.