Note: See updates below for the ISON ISOFF ISON nature of this comet that has everybody guessing. Picture at right also updated to reflect the new “zombie” status of this comet.
Looks like ISON has disintegrated during its turn around the sun. Given the radiation (estimated temperature 5,000F/2,760C – hot enough to vaporize rock), solar wind, and the tidal-forces (even though smallish, thanks Gavin) associated with its proximity and nearly 800,000 mph speed around the turn about that time, I’m not surprised. Watch the second video below where it goes “poof” (h/t to reader “David”)
NASA’s spaceweather.com reports:
Comet ISON is making its closest approach to the sun, and evidence is mounting that the nucleus of the comet has disintegrated. Watch the head of the comet fade dramatically as it approaches the sun in this SOHO coronagraph movie:
(may take a minute to load)
![sundiver_anim3[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/sundiver_anim31.gif)
The movie spans a day and a half period from Nov. 27th (01:41 UT) to 28th (15:22 UT). In the early hours of the 27th, Comet ISON brightens dramatically, saturating the pixels in the digital camera of the SOHO’s coronagraph. By mid-day on the 28th, however, the comet’s head appears to fade. This is a sign that the nucleus has likely fallen apart. That would make ISON a headless comet–more appropriate for Halloween than Thanksgiving.
Researchers working with the Solar Dynamics Observatory report that they are seeing nothing along the track that ISON was expected to follow through the sun’s atmosphere.
==============================================================
UPDATE: Watch it go “poof” here:
============================================================
UPDATE2: NASA JPL Insider Amy Mainzer tweets some last minute hope that ISON may be “undead”
http://twitter.com/AmyMainzer/status/406179229487742976
A zombie comet, how cool is that?
============================================================
UPDATE3: Now it seems back again, but looking entirely different than before. A number of astronomers indicate they don’t know what is left of it, maybe a chunk, maybe a smooshed drawn out nucleus or something else. Image from SOHO’s coronagraph:
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
More snowball than rock.
The big CME didn’t help much ;>)
That is cool. Pacman eats the dot.
The g forces will not cause disintegration but the tidal forces might.
REPLY: Yes also noted on twitter by Gavin. I’ve corrected it. Some stretching of the nucleus along the path due to tidal force may have aided in disintegration. – Anthony
This reminds me of what happened to the theory of CAGW right after Climategate.
;->
Must have picked up some of dat der carboon daoxade from Earth and heatud urp tooo much an exploded an’ all.
I’m sure it is impossible for such a small object to create a “CME”, but it sure looks like it did ??
G forces?
ISON is in free fall. Does not feel a thing\
REPLY: I meant tidal forces, and corrected the text before you wrote this comment – A
The second gif is better. The accidental looping of the blue images with the preceding mass ejection location makes an ambiguous GIF. Red is better or add a few frames to the blue gif at the beginning and at the end.
Comet Icarus.
Tidal forces are not “associated” with speed only with distance and size of comet
REPLY: Yes, trying to write all this in-between family duties today, text was updated just about time you commented. Originally, I was thinking about how gravity interaction with Jupiter busted up comet Shoemaker-Levy9 – A
It was a poof that in the red video seems to be dramatically explosive. But at > 1,000,000 kph the kinetic energy would be….. astronomical.
Darn.
I sure ISON’s destruction was George Bush’s fault.
Oh, well, only 48 years for Halley.
The CME isn’t the reaction of the nearby coming comet, it’s at the beginning of the sequence, at the startpoint of the movie where the comet is coming into picture at right. Butt still a magnificent sight!
I’m not convinced that it has been destroyed yet, I’ve seen comets behave like that in SOHO images only to see them reappear sometime after aphelion, its rare but it can and does happen.
@sparks reports from SDO team and others say no re-emergence seen
“I’m not seeing anything that emerged from the behind the solar disk. That could be the nail in the coffin,” astrophysicist Karl Battams, with the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, said during a live broadcast on NASA TV.”
Snowball warming!!!
While you are at it, remove the speed bit. Tidal forces has nothing to do with speed.
REPLY: Leif, the speed stays. It’s relevant to the report. Note the word “proximity” Speed of comet into solar wind will add shear force and ablation -A
Bwaa haa haa. So are all the Nibiru-nuts going to take down their Youtube videos? Search query http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=niniru+ison&sm=3 for some major giggles. How long before CAGW goes poof?
A comet’s lights going out doesn’t guarantee its been destroyed. It has arc discharged its electric potential, so it no longer has its ionic glow. It may have survived the trauma of the arc discharge, and is now the same voltage as it environment.
On the other hand it may have been destroyed.
Too early to tell, but at this moment I’m guessing it hasn’t been destroyed
It will be surely mist.
The CME might have pulled off the tail (it’s happened before) and the comet seems to disappear where the CME has exited from.
If the nucleus survived then it may take time to form a new tail.
Highly likely it disintegrated, however a two mile nucleus with no tail will be very hard to spot!
Anthony Check this out. What do you make of it?
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/c2/512/latest.jpg
REPLY: Almost looks like the comet skipped off the photosphere, but that may be solar wind transport of comet ejecta – Anthony
Now I don’t know whether to get up early to look or not!!