‘Crazy,
dynamic, unpredictable’ comet ISON still glowing, but is it still
alive?
The
unpredictable behavior of the ancient ISON comet has scientists
scratching their heads, as the world’s space agencies had to
quickly backtrack from their earlier claim that it had been destroyed
in its encounter with the sun.
29
November, 2013
The
2km-wide relic has been traveling to meet our star for over a million
years. But the “dinosaur bone of solar system formation,” as
senior research scientist at Johns Hopkins University, Carey Lisse,
dubbed it, did not shine as bright after its slingshot encounter
around the sun on Thursday, forcing scientists and stargazers to
conclude the celestial body had lost its tail and nucleus.
Karl
Battams of NASA wrote on the space agency’s dedicated ISON blog
about the confusion that the celestial body has caused.
“After
impressing us yesterday, comet ISON faded dramatically overnight and
left us with a comet with no apparent nucleus,” Battams said, also
mentioning the deluge of calls he and the team had received from
reporters, despite not being able to provide them with 100 percent
clarity.
“As
the comet plunged through the solar atmosphere, and failed to put on
a show… we understandably concluded that ISON had succumbed to its
passage and died a fiery death. Except it didn't! Well, maybe...,”
he continued.
There
were conflicting theories about the comet’s fate, but what emerged
later in the photographic evidence forced everyone to backtrack.
The
assumptions were dictated by the fact that traveling just over a
million kilometers above our star’s surface would have melted all
the comet’s ice at temperatures of over 2,000 degrees Celsius,
while the sun’s magnetic field would have strongly influenced its
behavior as well.
But
claims of the ISON’s demise were later challenged with photographic
evidence, as scientists saw a faint, but still bright glow of what
they believe to be a piece of the comet.
Battams
then went on to describe “a faint smudge of dust” visible in the
images taken after the comet’s apparent exit from behind our star,
which showed the faint glow traveling along ISON’s orbit. Admitting
this could simply be a speck of dust, hopes were not high. However,
the glow did not disappear.
“Now,
in the latest LASCO C3 images, we are seeing something beginning to
gradually brighten up again. One could almost be forgiven for
thinking that there's a comet in the images!”
“We
have a whole new set of unknowns, and this ridiculous, crazy, dynamic
and unpredictable object continues to amaze, astound and confuse us
no end,” Battams finished, asking everyone to be patient with
further guess work. He added that if the glow is indeed the comet, we
will be seeing it in the night sky in a matter of days.
NASA
was not alone in retracting its earlier assessments: the European
Space Agency stepped back from its earlier claims of ISON’s end as
well.
However,
scientists do not wish to make any further predictions as to its
future at this point, because the comet could still just as easily
stop releasing material and die out, if it indeed has not burned up
after encountering the sun’s corona.
-
ISON stands for International Scientific Optical Network
-
Discovered September 2012 by two amateur Russian astronomers
-
Originated in the Oort Cloud, about halfway from the sun to the next
star
-
Its age is about 4.5 billion years, like our solar system, where it
originated
-
Studying the comet should help our understanding of planet formation:
when comets are destroyed from brushing close to the sun, the
resulting vapors give clues of their chemical composition
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