The greatest space observation in Earth's history is underway in the last 24 hour due to the coming of a huge comet running at 377 kilometers a second to the sun. The ISON comet, which is estimated to be up to 4,8 (as long as a small mountain), does not pose a threat to the Earth but is expected to offer thanks to the splendor of a shocking spectacle and the opportunity for the scientific community to collect important data and information about nature and the reaping of these celestial bodies.
On November 28, the comet originating from the exotic Oort cloud, tens of trimillions kilometers away, it will approach the sun at a distance of 1.159.000 kilometers and automatically its temperature will jump to 2.760 degrees Celsius. If it survives this close pass by the sun, then ISON will surpass the Great Comet of 1680 in brightness.
In November of this year, an incredibly brilliant comet discovered by the German astronomer Gödfred Kirch with a telescope passed almost as close to the sun as ISON is expected to do, fearing the world that was running in the churches seeking ... forgiveness from God.
The Great Comet was visible and the day while the tail that left behind was appreciated much later that 150 was the milestone.
ISON was discovered in September 2012 by Russian amateur astronomers when it was 940 million kilometers from the sun. It was then 25.000 times fainter than it is today and was incredibly difficult to detect even with large telescopes.
But at the beginning of last June the telescopes "captured" it for good when it was at a distance of 500 million kilometers. The carbon dioxide together with the dust released from its surface it had already created a tail of 300.000 kilometers.
"At that time, ISON emitted one million kilograms of carbon dioxide and 54,4 million pounds of powder each day," said Karei Lise of John Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory.
The latest 24, space telescopes such as Hubble, SOHO A and B, or SDO, as well as large Earth observation devices, are turning to the ISON comet, following its rapid approach to the sun.
Even if the comet dissipates from the heat of the sun, the spectacle that it causes is expected to be shocking, while the information that telescopes will collect for this distant visitor will be most valuable.
"No matter what the comet's fate is, we are in the midst of an exciting opportunity," said Matthew Nate, an astronomer at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona.
"We are dealing with a celestial object that enters the Earth's trajectory after 4,5 billions of years in the cold. All eyes will be on it. "
Some time ago, a NASA-funded study conducted by Lowell Observatory and the Southwestern Research Institute in Texas, estimated that the comet is very likely to survive from its near-pass to the sun.
If this happens, then at 26 December, the comet will be at the nearest point of its path to the Earth and will depart from our planet 45 millions of kilometers, that is 1 / 3 of the distance that separates Earth from the sun.
As early as early December in the Northern Hemisphere, the comet will be particularly bright and easily visible with the naked eye. Even during the day it will be visible low on the horizon towards the end of the month and in early January it will be visible throughout the night.
At present the comet is visible with a powerful pair of binoculars or amateur telescope as long as the night is clear and away from the lights of big cities. The comet can be better observed one hour before sunrise.
His relationship with the Big Comet of 1680
ISON is perhaps the losts brother of the Great Comet of 1680, NASA scientists speculate. The similarities between the two bodies are many, and astronomers speculate that they are two parts of a large comet that broke up millions of years ago. Due to gravitational interactions and the passage of time, one comet visited our inner solar system 333 years ago and is now being followed by the second with a slightly different orbit.
The Great Comet was estimated to have passed at a distance of 0,42 AU from the Sun (one AU unit is the Earth-sun distance) and ISON will pass at exactly the same distance.
In some calculations, if ISON survives, it may explode forever away from our solar system and never return.
It weighs over 3 trillions of kilos
The size of a small mountain seems to be the comet as its diameter, according to the latest calculations by NASA's JPL, does not exceed 4,8 kilometers. Its weight is predicted to range from 3,2 billion pounds to 3,2 trillion pounds. As all comets are a "dirty snowball" consisting of frozen dust and gasses, water, ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide. These are fundamental constituents that, prior to 4,5, billions of years ago they were also aggregated to create the planets of our solar system. Scientists speculate that it comes from the Cloud's cloud that stretches for up to a year of light away from the sun and is a scattered area of comets and comet-like objects.
