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Mission to Catch Comet ISON
Mission to Catch Comet ISON Andrew Cheng (JHU/APL; [email protected]) Steve Arnold (JHU/APL) Pietro Bernasconi (JHU/APL) Karl Hibbitts (JHU/APL) Eliot Young (SwRI) Tibor Kremic (GRC) Comet ISON . Comet ISON discovered September, 2012 An Oort Cloud comet believed to be making its first apparition . ISON perihelion in November, 2013 A sun-grazer which may not survive perihelion passage intact Observe the comet before perihelion . An important target of opportunity To study volatile-rich material from the epoch of planet formation To learn how comets work 26 May 2013 2 Oort Cloud Comets • Provide clues to the origins of the Solar System • Consist of pris8ne, icy material that was never heated in the inner solar system In late 2013, ISON may become the brightest Oort Cloud comet to appear in decades Comet Ikeya-Seki, sun-grazer of 1965 Comet McNaught in 2007 26 May 2013 3 Comet ISON Observability • Comet ISON is observable from the Northern Hemisphere, with solar elongaon >40°, from September 15, 2013 through Nov 12, 2013 • ISON becomes steadily brighter through this period • ISON may remain spectacularly bright aer December, 2013 Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok, discoverers (space.com) 26 May 2013 4 Comet ISON Brightness . Observations are consistent with V~12 at time of BRRISON flight . Due to small solar elongation, additional observations BRRISON flight prior to flight are not expected CIOC web site, sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil 12 June 2013 BRRISON Project Review 3 5 What is BRRISON? . BRRISON = Balloon Rapid Response for the comet ISON Goal is to observe the comet ISON from a balloon platform Leverages the balloon study concepts Coordinate the science measurements with the greater scientific community, including ground and space observations 12 months from comet discovery to mission . -
The Comet's Tale
THE COMET’S TALE Journal of the Comet Section of the British Astronomical Association Number 33, 2014 January Not the Comet of the Century 2013 R1 (Lovejoy) imaged by Damian Peach on 2013 December 24 using 106mm F5. STL-11k. LRGB. L: 7x2mins. RGB: 1x2mins. Today’s images of bright binocular comets rival drawings of Great Comets of the nineteenth century. Rather predictably the expected comet of the century Contents failed to materialise, however several of the other comets mentioned in the last issue, together with the Comet Section contacts 2 additional surprise shown above, put on good From the Director 2 appearances. 2011 L4 (PanSTARRS), 2012 F6 From the Secretary 3 (Lemmon), 2012 S1 (ISON) and 2013 R1 (Lovejoy) all Tales from the past 5 th became brighter than 6 magnitude and 2P/Encke, 2012 RAS meeting report 6 K5 (LINEAR), 2012 L2 (LINEAR), 2012 T5 (Bressi), Comet Section meeting report 9 2012 V2 (LINEAR), 2012 X1 (LINEAR), and 2013 V3 SPA meeting - Rob McNaught 13 (Nevski) were all binocular objects. Whether 2014 will Professional tales 14 bring such riches remains to be seen, but three comets The Legacy of Comet Hunters 16 are predicted to come within binocular range and we Project Alcock update 21 can hope for some new discoveries. We should get Review of observations 23 some spectacular close-up images of 67P/Churyumov- Prospects for 2014 44 Gerasimenko from the Rosetta spacecraft. BAA COMET SECTION NEWSLETTER 2 THE COMET’S TALE Comet Section contacts Director: Jonathan Shanklin, 11 City Road, CAMBRIDGE. CB1 1DP England. Phone: (+44) (0)1223 571250 (H) or (+44) (0)1223 221482 (W) Fax: (+44) (0)1223 221279 (W) E-Mail: [email protected] or [email protected] WWW page : http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/ Assistant Director (Observations): Guy Hurst, 16 Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, BASINGSTOKE, Hampshire. -
Comet ISON - Part 1 Cometthe ISON
Comet ISON - Part 1 CometThe ISON With the most dramatic portion of Story Comet’s ISON’s apparition almost upon us, questions remain about what we’ll see. John E. Bortle Like some hero in a Homeric epic, the spectacle everyone is dreaming about. story of Comet ISON has vacillated The swirl of controversy associated with this comet between the extremes of exaltation arose within days of its September 21, 2012 discovery by and the depths of despair. The comet Russian amateur astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom was initially heralded as “the comet Novichonok. They had noted the barely discernible dif- of the century” soon after its discov- fuse spot on images made with a remote 16-inch telescope ery more than a year ago. But by late in the International Scientifi c Optical Network (ISON). last spring it had morphed into an The object’s slow motion against the background stars object thought by some to be so small and fragile that it suggested that the discovery was made when the comet might even dissipate before reaching its rendezvous with was unusually far from the Sun. But what really set the the Sun. More recently, ISON has seemingly resurrected astronomical community in a tizzy was the realization itself, off ering hope that it may yet become the celestial that Comet C/2012 S1 was headed for an extraordinary ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY DENNIS DI CICCO UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED 26 December 2013 sky & telescope trip through the inner solar system in late 2013. Recent decades have seen several comets become spec- tacular sights as they neared the Sun. -
Ice & Stone 2020
Ice & Stone 2020 WEEK 21: MAY 17-23 Presented by The Earthrise Institute # 21 Authored by Alan Hale This week in history MAY 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 MAY 17, 1882: Observers in the path of a total solar eclipse that crossed central Egypt see and photograph a bright comet during totality. Comet Tewfik X/1882 K1, which was never seen again, was an apparent Kreutz sungrazer, and is this week’s “Comet of the Week.” Solar eclipse comets, in general, are the subject of this week’s “Special Topics” presentation. MAY 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 MAY 18, 44 B.C.: Astronomers in China first record seeing a bright comet, which was also later seen from Europe. The comet’s appearance shortly after the assassination of Julius Caesar has caused it to become generally known as “Caesar’s Comet” and it is next week’s “Comet of the Week.” MAY 18, 1970: Australian amateur astronomer Graeme White discovers a bright comet deep in evening twilight. Over the next several nights several other independent discoveries of this comet were made, including by Air France pilot Emilio Ortiz and by Carlos Bolelli at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Comet White-Ortiz-Bolelli 1970f was the last bright Kreutz sungrazer to be observed from the ground until 2011. Kreutz sungrazers are the subject of a future “Special Topics” presentation. MAY 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 MAY 20, 1910: Comet 1P/Halley passes 0.151 AU from Earth, transiting the sun in the process (which was not detected) and briefly creating the longest apparent cometary tail ever observed. -
Ice & Stone 2020
Ice & Stone 2020 WEEK 17: APRIL 19-25, 2020 Presented by The Earthrise Institute # 17 Authored by Alan Hale This week in history APRIL 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 APRIL 20, 1910: Comet 1P/Halley passes through perihelion at a heliocentric distance of 0.587 AU. Halley’s 1910 return, which is described in a previous “Special Topics” presentation, was quite favorable, with a close approach to Earth (0.15 AU) and the exhibiting of the longest cometary tail ever recorded. APRIL 20, 2025: NASA’s Lucy mission is scheduled to pass by the main belt asteroid (52246) Donaldjohanson. Lucy is discussed in a previous “Special Topics” presentation. APRIL 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 APRIL 21, 2024: Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is predicted to pass through perihelion at a heliocentric distance of 0.781 AU. This comet, with a discussion of its viewing prospects for 2024, is a previous “Comet of the Week.” APRIL 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 APRIL 22, 2020: The annual Lyrid meteor shower should be at its peak. Normally this shower is fairly weak, with a peak rate of not much more than 10 meteors per hour, but has been known to exhibit significantly stronger activity on occasion. The moon is at its “new” phase on April 23 this year and thus the viewing circumstances are very good. COVER IMAGE CREDIT: Front and back cover: This artist’s conception shows how families of asteroids are created. Over the history of our solar system, catastrophic collisions between asteroids located in the belt between Mars and Jupiter have formed families of objects on similar orbits around the sun. -
FIRST COMETARY OBSERVATIONS with ALMA: C/2012 F6 (LEMMON) and C/2012 S1 (ISON) Martin Cordiner1,2, Stefanie Milam1, Michael Mumm
45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2014) 2609.pdf FIRST COMETARY OBSERVATIONS WITH ALMA: C/2012 F6 (LEMMON) AND C/2012 S1 (ISON) Martin Cordiner1,2, Stefanie Milam1, Michael Mumma1, Steven Charnley1, Anthony Remijan3, Geronimo Vil- lanueva1,2, Lucas Paganini1,2, Jeremie Boissier4, Dominique Bockelee-Morvan5, Nicolas Biver5, Dariusz Lis6, Yi- Jehng Kuan7, Jacques Crovisier5, Iain Coulson9, Dante Minniti10 1Goddard Center for Astrobiology, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770, USA; email: [email protected]. 2The Catholic University of America, 620 Michigan Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20064, USA. 3NRAO, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA. 4IRAM, 300 Rue de la Piscine, 38406 Saint Martin d’Heres, France. 5Observatoire de Paris, Meudon, France. 6Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. 7National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. 9Joint As- tronomy Centre, Hilo, HI 96720, USA. 10Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santigo, Chile. Introduction: Cometary ices are believed to have The observed visibilities were flagged, calibrated aggregated around the time the Solar System formed and imaged using standard routines in the NRAO (c. 4.5 Gyr ago), and have remained in a frozen, rela- CASA software (version 4.1.0). Image deconvolution tively quiescent state ever since. Ground-based studies was performed using the Hogbom algorithm with natu- of the compositions of cometary comae provide indi- ral weighting and a threshold flux level of twice the rect information on the compositions of the nuclear RMS noise. ices, and thus provide insight into the physical and chemical conditions of the early Solar Nebula. To real- Results: The data cubes show spectrally and spa- ize the full potential of gas-phase coma observations as tially-resolved structures in HCN, CH3OH and H2CO probes of solar system evolution therefore requires a emission in both comets, consistent with anisotropic complete understanding of the gas-release mecha- outgassing from their nuclei. -
Ice & Stone 2020
Ice & Stone 2020 WEEK 16: APRIL 12-18, 2020 Presented by The Earthrise Institute # 16 Authored by Alan Hale This week in history APRIL 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 APRIL 13, 2029: The near-Earth asteroid (99942) Apophis will pass just 0.00026 AU from Earth, slightly less than 5 Earth radii above the surface and within the orbital distance of geosynchronous satellites. At this time this is the closest predicted future approach of a near-Earth asteroid. The process of determining future close approaches like this one is the subject of this week’s “Special Topics” presentation. APRIL 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 APRIL 14, 2020: The near-Earth asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2, which will be passing close to Earth later this month, will occult the 7th-magnitude star HD 71008 in Cancer. The predicted path of the occultation crosses central Belarus, central Poland, northwestern Czech Republic, southern Germany, western Switzerland, southeastern France, central Algeria, far eastern Mali, and western Niger. APRIL 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 APRIL 15, 2019: A team of scientists led by Larry Nittler (Carnegie Institution for Science) announces their discovery of an apparent cometary fragment encased within the meteorite LaPaz Icefield 02342 that had been found in Antarctica. This discovery provides information concerning the transport of primordial material within the early solar system. COVER IMAGEs CREDITS: Front cover: This artist’s concept shows the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE spacecraft, in its orbit around Earth. From 2010 to 2011, the WISE mission scanned the sky twice in infrared light not just for asteroids and comets but also stars, galaxies and other objects. -
Comet ISON 26 November 2013
Q&A: Comet ISON 26 November 2013 billion years ago. It's been traveling from the outer edge of the solar system for about five-and-a-half million years to reach us in the inner solar system, and it's going to make an extremely close approach to the sun and hence could become very bright and possibly a very easy naked-eye object in early December. What will happen to comet ISON on Thanksgiving? So there are three possibilities when this comet rounds the sun on Thanksgiving Day 2013 [Nov. 28]. It could be tough enough to survive the passage of the sun and be a fairly bright naked-eye object in the early morning sky in the first week of December. Or, the sun could actually pull it apart. The tidal forces could actually pull this comet apart and so it becomes several chunks rounding the sun Comet ISON appeared in the higher-resolution HI-1 camera on NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft. Dark and putting on a great show again in early "clouds" coming from the right are more dense areas in December. Or, if the comet is very weak, it could the solar wind, causing ripples in Comet Encke's tail. break up into a cloud of dust and be a complete Using comet tails as tracers can provide valuable data bust in December. about solar wind conditions near the sun. Image Credit: Karl Battams/NASA/STEREO/CIOC Do comets like ISON present a scientific opportunity? There is going to be a small army of amateur and (Phys.org) —Don Yeomans, a senior research professional astronomers on the Earth, and scientist at JPL, keeps a watchful eye on near- spacecraft are going to be observing this object Earth objects—asteroids, comets and other space near the sun. -
Comets in Full Sky $\Mathsf{L {\Alpha}}$ Maps of the SWAN Instrument
A&A 368, 292–297 (2001) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20000545 & c ESO 2001 Astrophysics CometsinfullskyLα maps of the SWAN instrument I. Survey from 1996 to 1998 J. T. T. M¨akinen1, J.-L. Bertaux2,T.I.Pulkkinen1,W.Schmidt1,E.Kyr¨ol¨a1, T. Summanen1, E. Qu´emerais2, and R. Lallement2 1 Finnish Meteorological Institute, Geophysics Research, PO Box 503, 00101 Helsinki, Finland 2 Service d’A´eronomie, BP 3, 91371 Verri`eres-le-Buisson, France Received 29 September 2000 / Accepted 8 December 2000 Abstract. The SWAN instrument onboard the SOHO spacecraft is a Lyman α scanning photometer cabable of mapping the whole sky with 1◦ resolution. Since January 1996 the instrument has produced on average three full sky maps a week with the principal scientific objective of observing the distribution of heliospheric neutral hydrogen. In addition, these systematic observations are a valuable source for studying comets brighter than a visual magnitude of 7–11, the observing limit depending on the abundance ratios of produced radicals and the location of the comet relative to the galactic plane. When the data before the temporary loss of control of SOHO at the end of June 1998 were processed, altogether 18 comets were positively identified, of which one is a new discovery and another 5 can be detected on SWAN images before their actual discovery date. This demonstrates the feasibility of SWAN as an instrument for cometary surveys. The observations are used to estimate the water production rates of the detected comets near their perihelion passages. Key words. data analysis – surveys – comets – ultraviolet: solar system 1. -
Fragmentation Hierarchy of Bright Sungrazing Comets and the Birth and Orbital Evolution of the Kreutz System
The Astrophysical Journal, 607:620–639, 2004 May 20 # 2004. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. FRAGMENTATION HIERARCHY OF BRIGHT SUNGRAZING COMETS AND THE BIRTH AND ORBITAL EVOLUTION OF THE KREUTZ SYSTEM. I. TWO-SUPERFRAGMENT MODEL Zdenek Sekanina and Paul W. Chodas Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109; [email protected], [email protected] Received 2004 January 7; accepted 2004 February 6 ABSTRACT A back-and-forth orbit integration technique, developed for our previous investigation of the splitting of the parent of the sungrazers C/1882 R1 and C/1965 S1, is now applied in an effort to understand the history and orbital evolution of the Kreutz sungrazer system, starting with the birth of two subgroups, which show prom- inently among the bright members and whose inception dates back to the progenitor’s breakup into two superfragments. The integration technique is used to reproduce the motion of comet C/1843 D1—the second brightest sungrazer known and presumably the most massive surviving piece of superfragment I—from the motion of C/1882 R1—the brightest sungrazer on record and arguably the most massive surviving piece of superfragment II. Running the orbit of C/1882 R1 back to a.d. 326, the progenitor comet is found to have split at a heliocentric distance of 50 AU and nearly 30 yr before perihelion. The superfragments acquired separation velocities of 8msÀ1 in opposite directions. Using the same technique, we show next that (1) the motions of two additional sungrazers, C/1880 C1 and C/1887 B1, are matched extremely well if these objects shared a common parent with C/1843 D1, and (2) C/1963 R1 (Pereyra), the second brightest subgroup I member on record, is more closely related to subgroup II objects (such as C/1882 R1 and C/1965 S1) than to C/1843 D1. -
Comet ISON! (Comet of the Century?)
1 Mr. Justin J McCollum (BS, MS Physics) Lab Physics Coordinator Dept. of Physics Lamar University 2 Table of Contents ISON network………………..….………………….…...3 – 6 C/2012 S1 Discoverers………….…...……….…...…7 – 10 CoLiTech System…………………….……….….………...11 Discovery & Prediscovery……………….…….………...12 Early Orbital Analysis…………………….……….…….…13 Speculations of Comet ISON…………..…………14 - 15 Oort or Oort – Opik Cloud………….……........16 – 17 Origin of Comet ISON……….………………….……….18 Sungrazer Comets…………………………………….19 - 20 Evolution of Comet ISON………………………………21 Facts about Comet ISON…………………....…..22 – 23 ISON a Pristine Comet?...............................24 – 25 Photometry & Current Brightness……………..26 – 27 Nature and State of the Coma…………………..28 – 30 Central Nucleus of Comet ISON………………31 – 32 Nucleus to the Tail……………………………….…..……33 Nature & State of the Tail…………………………34 – 35 Future & Expectations………………………….....36 – 39 Getting to know more about Comets!...........40 – 46 After Perihelion Passage!..............................47 – 49 Catching the Comet in December!…………….50 – 53 ISON in the Daytime…….…………………………….…54 NASA Involvement!.............................................55 C/2012 S1 Orbital Structure………………..…………..56 Ephemeris Terminology………………………………...57 Data Spreadsheet Introduction………………………..58 Data Table Spreadsheets…………………………..59 - 60 Comet ISON Updates………………………………61 - 62 Knowing where & how to find ISON……...…63 – 64 Current ISON Observing Campaign………….65 – 66 Comet ISON photo contest…………………………….67 End Page……………………………………………………...68 3 Imperial Academy of -
A Great Comet Coming? Comet ISON May Grow Into a Truly Incredible Sight
OBSERVING Exploring the Solar System John E. Bortle A Great Comet Coming? Comet ISON may grow into a truly incredible sight. Or not. A faint and distant comet discovered by Russian ama- potential for becoming a spectacular object, comets are teur astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok notoriously unpredictable. Observers need only recall the in September is going to be big news in late 2013. But dismal failure of Comet Elenin in 2011, which was also whether it will become a great comet remains unclear. touted to become a grand spectacle. From the outset, Comet C/2012 S1 (also known as As this is being written, only a few weeks after the Comet ISON after the International Scientific Optical discovery with Comet ISON still 6 a.u. from the Sun, it’s Network involved with its discovery) was wrapped in a unclear whether the comet’s orbit is parabolic or very swirl of hype and controversy. The initial orbital elements, highly elliptical — an important factor for the comet’s indicating that the comet will pass just 0.01 astronomical future performance. A parabolic orbit suggests that the unit (a.u.) from the Sun, generated a firestorm of wild comet is coming in from the Oort Cloud for a first-time speculation across the internet. Poor understanding of swing by the Sun. Such objects often brighten very early, how comets typically behave led people to post early com- raising high hopes, but once they come within about 1½ ments suggesting that Comet ISON would become 100 a.u. of the Sun their brightening can radically slow.