Comet ISON Approaches Perihelion 39
New submitter BugNuker writes "Comet ISON has been speeding towards the sun, and while doing so, it has been getting brighter. There was hope that ISON would be 'Comet of the Century' material. That does not seem to be the case, but it still exists and it's still very interesting. Recently, ISON has undergone some outbursts, making it a near naked-eye object. ISON is still approaching perihelion (it will get there at 18:25 UTC on 28 November). For now, we can keep watching the STEREO spacecraft images for more evidence."
Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society put together this animated GIF of the comet from images taken by the STEREO-A spacecraft. Karl Battams put together a fascinating GIF as well. The Planetary Society has a list of information feeds and scheduled events for keeping tabs on ISON.
SDO near real-time images (Score:5, Informative)
The NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will be providing near real-time images/movies at http://cometison.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [nasa.gov] on Nov 28 between 12:45 pm and 1:00 pm ET (1745 - 1900 UT)
More Info on ISON (Score:5, Informative)
Many theories have been going around about the breakup. This forums is a great place for info: http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/comets-ml/conversations/topics [yahoo.com]
Also, you can checkout real-time images of ISON as they are submitted here: http://spaceweathergallery.com/ison_gallery.html [spaceweathergallery.com]
Also, If interested, I've built a site with lots of ISON information. http://isontracker.com/ [isontracker.com] - Updates everyday
Re:Perihelion (Score:4, Informative)
It's winter here. The only thing you're likely to see is a hungry bear and a bunch of clouds.
We don't do tan lines in Alaska. Global warming hasn't quite got that far [xkcd.com].
Sungrazer Twitter feed -- a useful source (Score:4, Informative)
I've never been much of a Twitter fan, but this feed has been excellent for links to timely information and discussion:
SungrazerComets on Twitter [twitter.com]
Re:Animated gifs: second object? (Score:3, Informative)
that'll be Encke