back to article COMET ISON's sun dive climax: RENDEZVOUS with DESTINY

NASA has released a nifty video of Comet Ison as it makes its way inexorably towards its closest encounter with the Sun in just over three hours now at 18:44 GMT, 28 November. STEREO image of Ison approaching the Sun. Pic: NASA Made up of pictures from the Heliospheric Imager of the agency's STEREO-A (Solar Terrestrial …

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  1. EddieD

    Killjoy was here...

    Enke's tail was ripped off, but re-appeared later...

    <http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2007/10/01/01oct_encke_resources/movie_short.gif>

    I'm looking forward to sitting freezing my nads off in the cold, but long Scottish night, seeing something glorious..

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Good luck, Ison!

    Mean ol' Sun! Someone should turn you off for a couple days. :)

    1. cray74
      Joke

      Re: Good luck, Ison!

      If Ison was smarter then it would've made its periapsis dash at night and avoid all that sunlight.

  3. Zmodem

    nasa should work their Heliospheric Imager to find other planets if it lights them up like a star, instead of having to wait a whole orbit for a blink of the system star

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Boffin

      @ Zmodem

      I'm pretty sure that what you see in the videos is taken from a sattelite in heliostationary polar orbit above the sun. That disc in the center of the video is actually a physical shield that blocks direct sunlight (which would otherwise obscure the whole image), leaving only reflected light and glowing high energy particles visible.

      You'd have to put a satellite in polar orbit above an alien star to do the same thing in another solar system.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Holmes

        Re: @ Zmodem

        > heliostationary polar orbit above the sun.

        Such an orbit does not exist and the only one to go "Sun poles" was Ulysses and that took a lot of slingshotting and was over fast.

        At The Mission, we read:

        STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) is the third mission in NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes program (STP). The mission, launched in October 2006, has provided a unique and revolutionary view of the Sun-Earth System. The two nearly identical observatories - one ahead of Earth in its orbit, the other trailing behind - have traced the flow of energy and matter from the Sun to Earth. STEREO has revealed the 3D structure of coronal mass ejections; violent eruptions of matter from the sun that can disrupt satellites and power grids, and help us understand why they happen. STEREO is a key addition to the fleet of space weather detection satellites by providing more accurate alerts for the arrival time of Earth-directed solar ejections with its unique side-viewing perspective.

        So we have two sats, at 1 AU (i.e. Earth) orbit, and I would bet at the Lagrange Points.

        The Jimbo's Horde page has a nice explanation, which leads to this picture of the STEREO's pair current location. So not at the Lagrange points.

        To think that the budget for this probably had to be horse-traded over.

        1. Zmodem

          Re: @ Zmodem

          I was on the lines of putting the imager on hubble or ground telescopes, then you could take snapshots of a system star and maybe having more chance of spotting orbitting planets

    2. Stoneshop
      WTF?

      And once again

      Zmodem demonstrates its brobdignagian lack of clue and comprehension.

      1. Zmodem

        Re: And once again

        http://kepler.nasa.gov/

        when an object passes infront of a star, the light blinks, if it happens twice, there is something in orbit

        working the heliospheric lmager into long distant photos, an orbitting object could be in any position given the fact hubble can take a photo of a star 16 million light years away with a 6 month exposure time

        1. Zmodem

          Re: And once again

          you would just have more of these type of photos

          you just set your telescope to take 4 snapshots of a star everyday, if something is in orbit, it would probably be in one of the photos

  4. Chris G

    Did anyone see

    The alien pursuit ship that crosses paths with Ison at about the 15 second mark in the video?

    As it drops below the comet it develops a faint tail of it's own.

    Must be the rocket exhaust!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Did anyone see

      Sorry, but I was too busy shooting all the asteroids to get that guy.

    2. Wzrd1 Silver badge

      Re: Did anyone see

      Sorry, not an alien ship. That was me.

      Not rocket exhaust either, waste dump.

    3. TRT Silver badge

      Re: Did anyone see

      Yeah, what was that?

      1. Scott Bartlett

        Re: Did anyone see

        I'll plus one that - anyone know what the object crossing Ison's path is (most visible as it passes 'underneath' Earth from the video POV)?

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: Did anyone see

          Comet Encke?

  5. Winkypop Silver badge
    WTF?

    Where are all the cultists and the End-Times types?

    Surely this event rates a mention in their make believe la-la world.

  6. Belardi

    what was that other object?

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Holmes

      I could tell you it was comet Encke but then I would have to kill you.

  7. Ozzy

    If ISON doesn't break up . . .

    . . . we'll be treated, here in Blighty, to one of the most spectacular displays of clouds ever!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wrong planet names

    1st video - since when was Earth closer to the Sun than Mercury? Either a colossal f*** up at NASA or the real reason for global warming.

    And not, it's not just an optical illusion, it's from NASA so no fake moon landings, er Sun/asteroid impacts here.

    1. Charlie_Manson

      Re: Wrong planet names

      @AC

      That depends on where you are observing from.

      Hard to explain it simply but i will try. Imagine a clock face with two circles one large and one small. One the small circle imagine Mercury at 9am and Earth at 11am on the outer circle. Of course the sun is in the middle. Now view all three from the perspecitve of 6am and you will see that Earth appears to be closer to the Sun.

  9. Estariel

    Wow

    That second video montage is fabulous.....worth every penny...however much it cost to put a camera out there.

  10. Tyzoid8

    Comet and sun interacting

    I have read the comments above and was also wondering if that was comet Encke traveling vertically in the background but even more interesting to me was this... I find it unbelievable that no one seems to be concerned about the obvious increase in solar light and intensity as the comet approaches. In the first video there appears to be an obvious interaction going on between the comet and sun. Watch it again and you will see the sun getting much brighter as the comet approaches brighter but the field of view does not appear to change. Am I the only one seeing this? Isn't anyone concerned about the apparent huge CME blast occurring at the 6 second mark on the 2nd video?

    Just wondering?

  11. Stoneshop

    Sun Dive Climax

    So, that's Disaster Area playing a gig nearby?

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