Hubble captures possible ‘comet of the century’
US: NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope has captured the
clearest view yet of Comet ISON, which experts believe could become one
of the brightest comets ever seen when it lights up the sky later this
year.
Comet ISON was discovered in September 2012 by Russian amateur
astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok.
The new photos were snapped on April 10, when the comet was slightly
closer than Jupiter. At the time the icy wanderer was about 621 million
kilometres from the Sun and 634 million km from the Earth.
The new images are already helping astronomers take a bead on the
mysterious Comet ISON, which may shine as brightly as the full Moon when
it makes its closest pass by the Sun in late November, SPACE.com
reported.
Images show that ISON is already becoming quite active, though it is
still pretty far from our star. The comet's dusty head, or coma, is
about 5,000 km wide, and its tail is more than 92,000 km long,
astronomers said.
It sports a dust-blasting jet that extends at least 3,700 km - no
more than 4.8 to 6.5 km across.
Researchers said this small core makes the comet's behaviour on its
trip around the Sun, which will bring ISON within nearly 1.2 million km
of the solar surface, especially tough to predict.
ISON is apparently making its first trip through the inner solar
system from the distant, icy Oort cloud.
Therefore, it is difficult to know if ISON will live up to its
expectations or fizzle out like Comet Kahoutek - another possible “comet
of the century” - did in 1973.
“As a first-time visitor to the inner solar system, Comet C/ISON
provides astronomers a rare opportunity to study a fresh comet preserved
since the formation of the solar system,” Jian-Yang Li of the Planetary
Science Institute in Arizona, who led the team that imaged the comet,
said.
“The expected high brightness of the comet as it nears the Sun allows
for many important measurements that are impossible for most other fresh
comets,” Li said.
- DECCAN HERALD |