Happy Thanksgiving Comet ISON: Nice Knowing You?

Thursday, November 28, 2013 - 04:40 in Astronomy & Space

C/2012 S1, Comet ISON, is intriguing because it has never approached the sun before and that is scientifically terrific.  Comet ISON began in the Oort cloud almost a light year away and has traveled for over a million years. Unlike more famous comets, Halley's as an example, it has never come this way before - and that means it is still made of pristine matter from the earliest days of the solar system's formation. Its top layers haven't been lost by a trip near the sun. To study it as it approached Sol, a vast fleet of solar observation experiments have been watching. Would it break up or slingshot?  read more

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