Comet ISON did not survive its encounter with the Sun
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/11/28/nasa_hangout_live_video_chat.htmlUPDATE 2 (Nov. 28 at 18:45 UTC): An image of ISON from 17:48 (20 minutes after the one above) shows the comet even more stretched out. If the solid nucleus were intact it wouldn't be so smeared out, and more telling, the comet fades and narrows to the upper left, in the direction of its motion. That's exactly what you'd exect if the comet has broken up.]
= new reply since forum marked as read
1. ISON was in a hyperbolic orbit meaning it was not ever going to come back.
2. The orbit does not come anywhere close to earth's orbit, let alone intersect it at a time that earth is near the intersection.
These things were known soon after ISON's discovery, as soon as the orbital parameters were first calculated.
Just thought I would set people's minds at ease.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I'm a doctor not an astrophysicist.
I figure that if you're close enough to witness the impact, you won't survive the impact, and thus won't be able to tell anyone about it.
-Laelth
Quite a bummer though I'm glad I was able to see Hale-Bopp!
:large
streak at upper left
That's really disappointing. I had gotten up around dawn for 3 days in a row around the 17th when Ison was going towards the Sun. Supposedly you could see it low in the Eastern sky at that point. Of course all 3 days we had heavy clouds in the am, so there was no chance to catch a glimpse of it. I was counting on seeing it on it's way back towards us. What a bummer!!
