Comet ISON update – Swinging around the sun, Images from NASA spacecraft, and more

As mentioned earlier, Comet ISON has brightened considerably as it has gotten closer to the sun. It will go behind the sun on November 28th and there is great interest in how the comet will be affected by this closest encounter to the sun’s intense heat.

Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program talks about Comet ISON and what might happened to it when it emerges from around the sun:

NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft orbiting Mercury and the STEREO solar science probes have returned images of the comet.

Here’s an image of ISON from MESSENGER:

figure2_messenger_ison[1]

 

Here’s a GIF animation of images from the STEREO showing not only ISON but also Comet Encke:

NASA’s STEREO-A spacecraft is monitoring Comet ISON as it approaches the sun.
The latest movie from the spacecraft’s Heliospheric Imager shows Comet ISON,
Mercury, Comet Encke and Earth over a two day period from Nov. 20 to Nov. 22, 2013.
The sun sits right of the field of view of this camera.
Image Credit:  Karl Battams/NRL/NASA STEREO/CIOC.

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Lots of great pictures made by amateur astronomers can be found at  Spaceweather.com Realtime Image Gallery

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More info on ISON:

 

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