Newly Spotted Comet May Shine Among Brightest In History

Reader intellitech points to an article at National Geographic, from which he excerpts: "If astronomers' early predictions hold true, the holidays next year may hold a glowing gift for stargazers—a superbright comet, just discovered streaking near Saturn. Even with powerful telescopes, comet 2012 S1 (ISON) is now just a faint glow in the constellation Cancer. But the ball of ice and rocks might become visible to the naked eye for a few months in late 2013 and early 2014—perhaps outshining the moon, astronomers say. The comet is already remarkably bright, given how far it is from the sun, astronomer Raminder Singh Samra said. What's more, 2012 S1 seems to be following the path of the Great Comet of 1680, considered one of the most spectacular ever seen from Earth."

Comments

In 1680

[Anonymous Coward]

there was no light pollution. You could actually see the Milky Way and even dim comets would stand out in the night sky.

Now you can barely spot the full moon anywhere outside North Korea.

Re:Religious implications

[maxwell demon]

10 AD is outside the range of dates in which the birth of Jesus could have happened. At that time, Herod was already dead for over a decade.

If you are interested in a good overview on the theories about the star of Bethlehem, I've found this page quite informative.

Re:Whats more

[yotto]

I love clicking on a link that purports to be informative, when I did nothing wrong myself, and be presented with a page that tells me to run javascript.

How about an actual link?

https://www.google.com/search?q=great+comit+of+1680
or even better
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Comet_of_1680