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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.'"
...comet brains
Table-ized A.I.
Video from NASA -
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.php?id=1188
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
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".
The reason for why the comet appears to be so huge is the massive coma around the core as well as the tail originating from the core and scattering like a bowwave from a ship it extends and expands the further away it is from the source. The sudden seemingly increase in size of the tail when ISON re-appears above the sun comes from the sudden change of direction and the new direction how the ejected material is forced away from the core by the solar wind.
Most comets have a nucleus (the center of a comet) that is less than about 6 miles (10 km) wide. The size of a comet changes depending on how close it is to the sun. As a comet gets closer to the sun, the ices on the surface of its nucleus vaporize and form a cloud called a coma around the nucleus that can expand out to 50,000 miles (80,000 km). A tail also forms on a comet as it approaches the sun. Comet tails can be over 600,000 miles (1 million km) long.
An awesome gif indeed. A little closer to home is ....
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/12/image-of-the-day-a-spectacular-meteor-streaking-through-the-aurora-borealis.html
Only if you mess with it's sister.
So many idiots, so few comets.
Table-ized A.I.
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?
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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.
Remained intact and still moving
moox. for a new generation.
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".
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Well, in Japanese mythology, the sun deity is most definitely a gal.
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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
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.
It of course referred to ancient chinese people. The Chinese have been around for thousands of years, the beliefs of modern chinese are irrelevant. China is also a very big area in Asia with many different peoples. In any case I wouldn't expect any modern chinese to still be burdened by religion today, especially polytheist ones.
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
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"...
xkcd
They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
your reading comprehension skills are lacking, I only said they had this character as a "deity", which can and does include very very minor ones, and which does not even imply worship, just that they're on a list in someone's religion as being a deity. Aside from most Chinese probably being atheists, of the ones that have a religion most would be Mahaya Bhuddhists, and THAT religion does have the Grandfather Sun on the list of (very minor) deities. QED, you lose.
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"
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.