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How Much of ISON Survived Its Closest Approach To the Sun?
SternisheFan writes "This Ars Technica article examines what may be left of ISON and contains a detailed animated GIF from the NASA STEREO Ahead spacecraft. 'It looks like comet ISON, or most of it, did not survive its encounter with the Sun yesterday, when it made a close approach at just 1.2 million kms from that fiery surface. This distance may seem large, but it is close enough to have subjected the comet to temperatures of around 2,700C. To survive such a close shave with the Sun may sound unlikely, but a few other sungrazing comets have managed the feat during even closer passes. So some people hoped ISON would perform a death-defying stunt and emerge intact. ISON did not leave us without a final serving of mystery though. Soon after reaching its nearest point to the Sun (known as perihelion), there was no sign of it emerging afterwards. Twitter and news agencies were alight, lamenting its loss and assuming it disintegrated—RIP ISON. But then, moments later, new images emerged showing a hint of something appearing on the other side of the Sun. Was this still a diminished comet ISON or a ghostly version of its former self? Well, even comet experts are not sure.'"
Good thing I already read this at Ars. I usually go there first.
...comet brains
Table-ized A.I.
Video from NASA -
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.php?id=1188
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
is there any chance of it coming around and hitting us?
in 1986...
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
It's like they has their own 'snow physics' or somethin'.
Spent All My Mod Points
sorry, but in most the major religions that have Sun as a diety ( Ancient Egyptian, Aztec, Roman, Greek, Chinese, Bhuddist) , he's a dude. Your comets swing "the other way".
So many idiots, so few comets.
Table-ized A.I.
haha suckers
ok. i'm down. i-Son.
Probably a stupid question - but wouldn't the steam/plasma presumably have the same orbit as the original solid mass; similarly presumably wouldn't the solar wind blow the mass away fairly evenly - meaning in a long long time, it'll cool, condense and potentially (slowly) pull itself back together?
#!/bin/csh cat $0
Define survived
Its not like it was alive or anything
Most of the non ice stuff will still be in pretty much the same orbit
NASA got caught lying and photoshopping 'official' photos and video again.
How do they define temperature? The show happens in vacuum, there is no thermal agitation. Inside the comet this is another story, but are we able to measure the internal temperature?
It Still Outshines Nothing
The ejected material could come off at a significant velocity, so it wouldn't have quite the same orbit.
Solar wind (and light pressure) have more effect on small particles than large ones, since they act based on surface area (r^2) against mass (r^3). This is why the solar wind can sweep dust out of the solar system, but not planets.
There is also drag from the corona to consider. The comet effectively did an air dip.
TL;DR Any lost material was either blown out into space, or fell into the sun. Either way, this comet will not 'pull itself back together'
What emerged from the other side was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.
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At first I read that as JSON and wondered what had happened to it.
In most the major religions that have Sun as a diety ( Ancient Egyptian, Aztec, Roman, Greek, Chinese, Bhuddist)
I may be an American citizen but I am still a Chinese, by ethnicity.
Someone must have forgotten to tell me that the Sun is a diety.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Ri Gong Tai Yang Xing Jun in Chinese mythology is "Grandfather Sun"
Why don't you go ask 100 Chinese and see how many of them ever heard of that "Ri Gong Tai Yang Xing Jun" ?
That character is one of the many many "minor characters" inside the Chinese fiction "Tale of the Monkey God"
Even the "Niu Mo Wang" (the Buffalo King), another character from the same tome, is more "famous" than that "Ri Gong Tai Yang Xing Jun" and yet, nobody, at least none of the Chinese that I know of, pray to that "Buffalo King".
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
My friend, I think everybody and their dog who were interested in comet ISON are already aware of this "news". You have wasted your time.
Well, in Japanese mythology, the sun deity is most definitely a gal.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Not to be confused with the spectacular comet Lovejoy (2011). Both were discovered by the same guy so bear his name.
Lovejoy (2013) isn't as bright (barely visible to the naked eye), but should be easily visible with binoculars. It made its closest approach to Earth on Nov 19 and will reach perihelion (closest approach to the sun) Dec 25. It's fairly high up in the Northern hemisphere sky right now.
http://earthsky.org/space/how-to-see-comet-lovejoy-c2013-r1-charts-photos
Dude, please make up your mind...
You first claimed that the Chinese worship the sun deity
but now you change your tone in saying that it's the Taoists who worship the "sun deity"
A Taoist might indeed worship the Sun Grandfather, they have rituals for doing so in their writings
I know that your in-laws are of the ethnic Chinese, but you just can't throw around and mixing up words like "CHINESE" with " Taoists " because they are NOT THE SAME !
As I have repeatedly said to you, I, an ethnic Chinese, and many MORE Chinese that I know of, do not worship the Sun.
Even you have admitted that your Chinese in-laws do not worship the Sun.
Plus, the term "Taoist" can NOT, and should NEVER be used to replace "Chinese", as there are a lot of "Taoists" that are NOT ethnic Chinese.
There are a lot of Taoists in both Vietnam and Thailand, and they are NOT ethnic Chinese !
It is as if I equate "White" to "Christians" or "Indians" to "Hindus".
What you are doing is totally fallacious !
One does not equate the other.
Let me say this again --- there are some who are Taoists, but the vast majority of the ethnic Chinese in this world are NOT Taoists.
Plus, there are non-ethnic Chinese who subscribe to the Taoist religion, including those from Thailand and from Vietnam.
Make up your mind, dude.
If you want to say the Taoists worshipping the "sun deity", go right ahead. You have no argument from me.
Just don't mis-use "Chinese" any way you feel like it.
Capisce ??
Buddhists don't worship gods ...
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
"Previous reports of Comet ISON's death may have been somewhat exaggerated, but this time it looks like the real thing [death].
Remnants of the object once touted as the "comet of the century" passed through the viewing field of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory in the wake of Thursday's close encounter with the sun -- and as it passed, the bright spot that survived grew dimmer and dimmer.
"I do think that something emerged from the sun, but probably a very small nucleus or 'rubble pile.' and I fear that may have now dissolved," Karl Battams..." (Emph. added)
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/comet-isons-leftovers-fade-away-right-satellites-eyes-2D11674277
Table-ized A.I.
is how, all over the interwebs, comet ISON is being described - and sometimes outright mourned - as if it had been / still were an animated being. Strange. If it had been my dog, or any dog for that matter, not surviving a close encounter with the sun - well then, hell yes. But ISON is only a chunk of dirty ice....
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Did all of these science idiots forget about conservation of mass and momentum already?
So, the comet evaporated, disintegrated, blew up, blah blah. The mass is still there, and so is all the matter that made it up. It doesn't just disappear. It didn't get teleported somewhere else. It didn't get relativistically changed into its corresponding energy. Some change of velocity could have been realized by the evaporation of water (changing energy from the sun into energy of expanding gas), but it's entirely feasible (and likely) that a comet made of rock and ice went in one end and a cloud of dust, water vapor, and smaller stuff came out the other.
sorry, but in most the major religions that have Sun as a diety ( Ancient Egyptian, Aztec, Roman, Greek, Chinese, Bhuddist) , he's a dude. Your comets swing "the other way".
Ah, yes. The ancient religion of "Chinese"...
http://www.space.com/53-comets-formation-discovery-and-exploration.html
He didn't say anything about worship, and devas are frequently translated as deities. There is even one specific to the sun or sunlight, although in some he is a bodhisattva instead of deva.
xkcd
They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
yes hundreds of millions of Buddhists do just that. In many Bhuddist countries other gods are rolled into the religion. Many have ancestor whorship. Many revere and pray to the Bhudda himself as a god. Many revere the Dalai Lama as a deity, and to oversimplify his teachings one could say he is telling people how they can become a "god"
so why don't you complain of the ancient religion of "Greek" or the ancient religion of "Roman"?
The concept of a god is in Buddism completely different than we name a god. It is only lack for a proper name that we call them gods. Most of them are as you correctly say mixed in from other religions. Most buddhists I know would call themselves atheists, as buddism is for them more a path for personal development than a religion.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
you could say that for various sects of any religion including Christianity, different views of "god" ranging from just a concept to a "helpful sprite" to big meanie who has already predestinated some to burn in hell
While the Sun's heat probably played a role in ISON's destruction, I think the main reason it broke up was because of the Sun's tidal forces. ISON was within its Roche limit, where the tidal effects of the Sun were enough to overpower ISON's own gravity, tearing the comet apart. Most of it is probably orbiting the Sun right now as a very small ring.