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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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
The Comets Are Here!
Comets in the sky in 2014 As of July 2013 there were 4,894 known comets, and this number is steadily increasing. However, this represents only a tiny fraction of the total potential comet population, as the reservoir of comet-like bodies in the outer Solar System may number one trillion. Roughly one comet per year is visible to the naked eye, though many of these are faint and unspectacular. Particularly bright examples are called "Great Comets". A comet goes by many names, the most important of which to its discoverer is his or her surname. Many bright comets that frequently return retain their popular names, such as Comet Halley. (Halley did not discover the comet, but he predicted its orbit and return.) Frequently, two or more observers discover a comet simultaneously or independently. The names of the first three observers to report their discovery properly are affixed to the new comet. The rapid growth in the number of known comets has prompted the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to catalogue them according to precise rules. A new cometary designation system was adopted 1 January 1995. The new system resembles that of minor planets, with objects recorded by the half-month. Thus the third comet reported as discovered during the second half of February 1997 would be designated 1997 D3. When appropriate, the nature (or suggested nature) of an object can be indicated by preceding the designation with A/ (for minor planet), C/ (for comet), P/ (for periodic comet), etc. Hence, under the new cometary designation system, Comet Hale-Bopp was designated C/1995 O1. -