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.
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UPDATE: Watch it go “poof” here:
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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?
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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:
It is not a comet. It is a space ship flying close to the sun to use the gravity to slingshot it back in time. They are probably going to save a whale or something like that.
its moved out from under the LASCO 3 sun shield and into view on the 23:30GMT shot
its apparently brighter than any of the solar\coronal plasma in view.
Looking fine
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/c3/512/
I’ll accept my noble prize on 3pm on Friday after I’ve collected my dole check. Just beaten the all the world’s professional astronomers to the correct conclusion on the non-fragmentation of Ison in its solar encounter.
http://cometison.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/processed_movies/latest_lascoC2.gif
Something went in and something came out…
http://cometison.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/processed_movies/latest_lascoC2.gif
Well something came out!
On COR2, at 21:39:24 you see it brighten. Then as the frames move to 22:24:24, you see it break into a large and a small piece.
VERY nice, meemoe.
It’s not dead
It’s resting.
It’s pining for the fjords.
@jim2 haven’t seen it or heard news of it. pls supply a link
I have been watching this all day and have to agree with meemoe_uk: there is a comet now travelling away from the Sun. Unless there was a second comet nobody had mentioned before it appears that rumours of ISON’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Is it possible y’all have mis-interpreted how the sun’s lighting works with the nucleus and the tail?
A forward-scattering of the light (as when the comet is closer to us) versus back-scatter (when the comet is further away, and going behind sun) kind of thing?
.
yeah, the tide of opinion is turning fast …
i’ve been browsing the yahoo comet news groups..
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/comets-ml/conversations/messages
“Golly! So the comet is not dead yet……I have been looking at the latest SOHO images and the comet appears to be quite alive and well. ” –
Dr. P. Clay Sherrod
Arkansas Sky Observatories 12:38am GMT 29 Nov 2013
John Maclean has just switched his opinion and told the Mass Media that Ison is alive and well.
https://twitter.com/AstroExeter
Don’t know if he’s their #1 space correspondent, but they’ve listened to him b4.
Tidal forces arise because the part of the comet closer to the sun experiences more gravitation pull than the part further away. The amount of tidal force generated depends on the ratio of the width of the object to the distance to the other object, so as the comet comes cloaer to the sun, the tidal force increases.
phlogiston says:
November 28, 2013 at 3:12 pm
I’m struggling to grasp that concept. Tidal (gravitational) forces will essentially act equally on all the parts of the relatively small body of the comet so why should it break up? Obviously, if it is mostly ice and rock, we could understand ‘melting’ aiding in said break up?
meemoe_uk says:
November 28, 2013 at 5:36 pm
meemoe_uk – go here and select the last 25 frames, highest resolution and the COR2 satellite. As the comet just clears the Sun, it brightens, then a small piece appears to separate and move to the right of the main body.
http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images
ok i looked and i didn’t see any fragment come off. It’s just the plasma tail blowing about.
I like Phil Platt’s blog post, after a lot of hype about it being destroyed he posts this
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy.html
UPDATE 2 (Nov. 29 at 02:30 UTC):….At this point, I refuse to make any further conclusions about this comet; it seems eager to confuse. I’ve been hearing from comet specialists who are just as baffled… which is fantastic! If we knew what was going on, there’d be nothing more to learn
It didn’t confuse me, and I’m not a comet specialist.
Seems it really never had much more than a snowballs chance in hell.
Don’t normally read Science blogs but stylistically it’s impeccably written (too many adverbs). Do visit my blog if you have the chance, it’s about video games (http://theinkandpen.wordpress.com/)
A.D. Everard
November 28, 2013 at 1:46 pm
‘At least mankind can’t be blamed for this one.’
Don’t bet on it.
Geoff Withnell says:
November 28, 2013 at 6:25 pm
I’m struggling to grasp that concept. Tidal (gravitational) forces will essentially act equally on all the parts of the relatively small body of the comet so why should it break up?
You are right about that. The tidal forces on such a small body are not strong enough to break it up and the notion [as presented in the post] that the forces are associated with or have anything to do with the speed with which the comet rounds the Sun in a free fall is totally false. It should be corrected.
REPLY: Leif I’m not making any claim about speed and tidal forces being connected. Speed does have an effect though, related to the comet impacting areas of denser particle emissions coming from the sun. Slamming into a particle stream coming at you 90 degrees from your path of travel at a path speed of 800,000 mph isn’t anything to ignore, especially for something as tenuous as a snowball comet. There’s going to be ablation. You can see this in the Stereo video above.
And tidal forces do have an effect on comets, as explained here by this Cornell Q and A on Comet Shoemaker Levy 9 and how it reacted to tidal forces of Jupiter. Loosely packed snowballs behave differently under such conditions.
From: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=217
The comment about tidal forces stays, so does speed.
Anthony
Gotta love that supersonic solar wind …
2 for me and none for ye
ISON
http://www.spaceweather.com/images2013/28nov13/rip_anim5.gif?PHPSESSID=96qbgdjhmhrm95kagtqsgofp53
But comet Lovejoy was more fun with its zigzag exit..
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010886/10886_Lovejoy_Comet_SDO_H264_1280x720_59.94_YouTube.mov
Are these sun escaping comets going to become more frequent?
Lovejoy
http://sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=images/lovejoy/EUVI_B_lovejoy.gif
Hmmm,..why haven’t the experts seen this for what it really is,…a starship a la ‘Destiny’, which is merely dropping into the Sun for a recharge…
:).
as long as the solar cycle is weak, yes. Comets are more likely to explode during solar maximum
meemoe_uk says:
November 28, 2013 at 8:22 pm
as long as the solar cycle is weak, yes. Comets are more likely to explode during solar maximum
Where is the observational data supporting this?