Notice that coming! Comet century - Gazeta.pl

ISON approaching the Sun at a stunning rate of 77 thousand. km / h. Hubble caught her in the photo May 8, when she was 645 million miles away, so somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. From a series of photographs taken that day at an interval of 43 minutes NASA made a five second animation:

the first time they saw a comet in September last year, astronomers from the East – Belarusian and Russian Vitaly Nevsky Artiom Nowiczonok. Both work in a small observatory, which has recently been opened near Kislovodsk, Russian town in the foothills of the Caucasus. There are telescopes ISON network that created the Russian Academy of Sciences to track satellites threatening “space debris”. But in addition to orbital debris telescopes are great for close asteroid detection, and comets. From the network name ISON comet got its name.

It was obvious that he belongs to a group of comets “muskaj?cych Sun”. November 28 przemknie approximately one million kilometers from the surface of our star. Earth will pass – just 64 million miles – the second day of Christmas. It has a diameter of about 5 km, and its formal astronomical designation is C/2012 S1. The letter “C” indicates that a non-periodic comet, or visit us just once, zatoczy arc around the sun and not come back anymore. The naked eye can make out it will be in early November, and then has become ever clearer. For weeks should provide a great view of the night sky, and at the end of November, when it is closest to the Sun, it will be possible to make out in the light of the day (for a short time can be brighter than the moon).

Earth in its motion around the Sun 14-15 January next year will cross the trail, which will leave a passing ISON. Then microparticles with its tail may appear in the night sky as rain falling stars.

This is the trajectory of the comet through the solar system:

Many hopes ISON will be more spectacular than the record bright comet Ikeya-Seki in 1965 but it may well turn out to be a dud, like a comet Kohoutek in 1973, which is also a great time promised, and we almost passed unnoticed. For now, until more come near, it is difficult to predict. Until then, you can hum the old Budka hit “Night of the Comet”:

What we bring comet ISON?

In the Middle Ages, the comet was a signpost for soothsayers and astrologers. Ancient Greeks serve up to weather forecasting. “When there are many comets, summers are dry and windy course” – he wrote Aristotle believes that the comet is a miasma of Earth’s atmosphere. In the past it was often compared to a bad witch – perhaps because their tail like matted hair and dashed, except that appeared in the sky suddenly and unexpectedly, by introducing disorder to the regular movements of the stars, planets and the Moon. Widely thought to be the announcement of extraordinary events, such as the death of kings, disaster, end of the world. Halley’s Comet in 1456 was supposed to warn of earthquakes, a mysterious red rain, and even the birth of two-headed animals. Those seen in the years 1664 and 1665 in England blamed the scourge of the plague, and then the great fire in 1666, Immortalised in “ Pan Tadeusz” Great Comet of Napoleon in the years 1811 to 1812 passed the Earth at a distance of 40 million miles, and it can be admired the naked eye for nine months, which is a record. Many French people seemed considerable sums for the purchase of wine from the 1811 vintage, the wine of the known comets have been extruded from grapes harvested after the extremely hot summer.