Sun-grazing ISON comet likely broke up


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STOCKHOLM (AP) ? Once billed as the comet of the century, Comet ISON apparently was no match for the sun.

Scientists said images from NASA spacecraft showed the comet approaching for a slingshot around the sun on Thursday, but just a trail of dust coming out on the other end.

"It does seem like Comet ISON probably hasn't survived this journey," U.S. Navy solar researcher Karl Battams said in a Google+ hangout.

Phil Plait, an astronomer who runs the "Bad Astronomy" blog, agreed, saying "I don't think the comet made it."

Still, he said, it wouldn't be all bad news if the 4.5-billion-year-old space rock broke up into pieces, because astronomers might be able to study them and learn more about comets.

"This is a time capsule looking back at the birth of the solar system," he said.

The comet was two-thirds of a mile wide as it got within 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) of the sun, which in space terms basically means grazing it.

 

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I know it's just a ball of rock and ice, but that's kind of sad. Billions of years floating around and today it's just gone (basically).

 

I was looking forward to seeing it too :/

That is precisely what I was thinking.

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STOCKHOLM (AP) ? Once billed as the comet of the century, Comet ISON apparently was no match for the sun.

Scientists said images from NASA spacecraft showed the comet approaching for a slingshot around the sun on Thursday, but just a trail of dust coming out on the other end.

"It does seem like Comet ISON probably hasn't survived this journey," U.S. Navy solar researcher Karl Battams said in a Google+ hangout.

Phil Plait, an astronomer who runs the "Bad Astronomy" blog, agreed, saying "I don't think the comet made it."

Still, he said, it wouldn't be all bad news if the 4.5-billion-year-old space rock broke up into pieces, because astronomers might be able to study them and learn more about comets.

"This is a time capsule looking back at the birth of the solar system," he said.

The comet was two-thirds of a mile wide as it got within 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) of the sun, which in space terms basically means grazing it.

 

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People on youtube are saying this guy is lying and is with Nasa trying to cover it up etc.

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People on youtube are saying this guy is lying and is with Nasa trying to cover it up etc.

 

uh, what.... why ?  and then all the amateur astronauts and space photographers would have to be in on the lie

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I know it's just a ball of rock and ice, but that's kind of sad. Billions of years floating around and today it's just gone (basically).

 

I was looking forward to seeing it too :/

 

What's sadder is the Earth, every living creature on it and our entire history will also cease to exist someday. Just the blink of an eye to the universe.

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people on a youtube channel bpearthwatch etc claiming that nasa and media are saying that the comet ison did not  survive but bpearthewatch and his followers are claiming it did and that the media and nasa are lying and me personally think they are nuts there no reason for nasa nor the media to lie about this.

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What's sadder is the Earth, every living creature on it and our entire history will also cease to exist someday. Just the blink of an eye to the universe.

I think I'm more sad that I personally am going to die someday :)

Seriously though, I'm an eternal optimist. We could actually literally be creating our own universes in a couple hundred years. Someone from 1813 couldn't understand, let alone imagine the world we live in today, and that pace of invention and scientific progress is only quickening.

 

people on a youtube channel bpearthwatch etc claiming that nasa and media are saying that the comet ison did not  survive but bpearthewatch and his followers are claiming it did and that the media and nasa are lying and me personally think they are nuts there no reason for nasa nor the media to lie about this.

Maybe it's the alien ship that was supposed to be following Hale Bopp :)

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http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/29/us/ison-comet/

(CNN) -- Hold the obituary. Experts now think Comet ISON -- or at least part of it -- survived its close encounter with the sun.

Karl Battams, a comet scientist for the Naval Research Laboratory, said it is believed some parts of ISON's nucleus survived perihelion.

"It now looks like some chunk of ISON's nucleus has indeed made it through the solar corona, and re-emerged," he said. "It's throwing off dust and (probably) gas, but we don't know how long it can sustain that."

However, he said, it's fate is uncertain.

"Now it has emerged and started to brighten, we need to observe it for a few days to get a feel for its behavior," Battams said.

ISON swept about 730,000 miles over the sun's surface Thursday about 2 p.m. ET.

A fleet of spacecraft watched ISON plunge toward the sun, including NASA's STEREO satellite, the European Space Agency/NASA SOHO spacecraft and the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

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Sungrazer Comets ?@SungrazerComets

Good morning again from Kitt Peak! It looks like a certain comet #ISON is still hanging in there quite nicely!


Also;
Sungrazer Comets ?@SungrazerComets Based on a few more hours of data, comet #ISON appears to be... well, behaving like a comet!

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/4064.../photo/1/large

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people on a youtube channel bpearthwatch etc claiming that nasa and media are saying that the comet ison did not  survive but bpearthewatch and his followers are claiming it did and that the media and nasa are lying and me personally think they are nuts there no reason for nasa nor the media to lie about this.

They also said the same about ELENIN and 2012 for donkeys years. fools

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