Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON)

[MarkS]

If you can catch this video today (Friday) you can see how incredibly fast the "remnant" is brightening.
http://soho.esac.esa.int/data/LATEST/current_c3small.mpg

[Mike]

It's certainly looking very promising.

[mickw]

It seems brighter on the way out - could mean it's breaking up 

[Rick]

More APOD: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131130.html

[MarkS]

Just picked up latest SOHO C3 movie.  Looks like its fizzling out

[Rick]

NASA Investigating the Life of Comet ISON

After several days of continued observations, scientists continue to work to determine and to understand the fate of Comet ISON: There's no doubt that the comet shrank in size considerably as it rounded the sun and there's no doubt that something made it out on the other side to shoot back into space. The question remains as to whether the bright spot seen moving away from the sun was simply debris, or whether a small nucleus of the original ball of ice was still there. Regardless, it is likely that it is now only dust.

More: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-investigating-the-life-of-comet-ison/

[mickw]

A couple of cool animations of Ison plus Encke assembled from STEREO data

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2013/12021624-multiple-views-of-comet-ison.html

The second movie shows what cased the "splat" effect in the first

[Rick]

Fire vs. Ice: The Science of ISON at Perihelion

After a year of observations, scientists waited with bated breath on Nov. 28, 2013, as Comet ISON made its closest approach to the sun, known as perihelion. Would the comet disintegrate in the fierce heat and gravity of the sun? Or survive intact to appear as a bright comet in the pre-dawn sky?

Some remnant of ISON did indeed make it around the sun, but it quickly dimmed and fizzled as seen with NASA's solar observatories. This does not mean scientists were disappointed, however. A worldwide collaboration ensured that observatories around the globe and in space, as well as keen amateur astronomers, gathered one of the largest sets of comet observations of all time, which will provide fodder for study for years to come.

More: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/fire-vs-ice-the-science-of-ison-at-perihelion/

[Rick]

Comet ISON's Dramatic Final Hours

A new analysis of data from the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft has revealed that comet 2012/S1 (ISON) stopped producing dust and gas shortly before it raced past the Sun and disintegrated.

When comet ISON was discovered in the autumn of 2012, astronomers hoped that it would eventually light up the night sky to become a "comet of the century". Orbital analysis showed that the sungrazing intruder from the outer reaches of the Solar System would pass only 1.2 million kilometres above the Sun's visible surface on 28 November 2013.

More: http://sci.esa.int/soho/54344-comet-ison-dramatic-final-hours/