New Comet Discovered! Big Show Possible For Earth… Tuesday
Update 5pm September 25, 2012 Leave a comment BIG SUN-DIVING
COMET DISCOVERED: Astronomy forums are buzzing with speculation
about newly-discovered Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). Currently located
beyond the orbit of Jupiter, Comet ISON is heading for a very
close encounter with the sun next year. In Nov. 2013, it will
pass less than 0.012 AU (1.8 million km) from the solar surface.
The fierce heating it experiences then could turn the comet into
a bright naked-eye object. Much about this comet–and its
ultimate fate–remains unknown. “At this stage we’re just
throwing darts at the board,” says Karl Battams of the NASA-
supported Sungrazer Comet Project, who lays out two
possibilities: “In the best case, the comet is big, bright, and
skirts the sun next November. It would be extremely bright —
negative magnitudes maybe — and naked-eye visible for observers
in the Northern Hemisphere for at least a couple of months.”
“Alternately, comets can and often do fizzle