Elizabeth Howell with Universe Today, affectionately calls the comet “Zombie ISON,” a tradition I think we’ll continue. She also writes, “But the remnants — or whatever ISON is now — kept brightening and brightening and brightening in images from the NASA/European Space Agency Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. The pictures are still puzzling astronomers right now, almost a day after ISON’s closest encounter with the sun.” A NASA statement released earlier today stated, “late-night analysis from scientists with NASA’s Comet ISON Observing Campaign suggest that there is at least a small nucleus intact.” The weirdest thing about this entire event is ISON is still behaving like a comet. At minimum, assuming it did disintegrate, it should just be another hunk of rock orbiting the Sun (or, it should behave like an asteroid). Karl Battams from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory writes, “One could almost be forgiven for thinking that there’s a comet in the images!”
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 21:02:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015