ISON No More?
Nov. 28th, 2013 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteSo it seems that Comet ISON did not survive its encounter with the Sun. This was the comet that was discovered in the fall of last year, and was immediately declared by some astronomers as a candidate for "the comet of the century." I was skeptical from the start - I remember Kohoutek and Halley - but I was also hopeful. Alas, ISON's path took it too close to the Sun, and its glow has apparently been dimmed forever.
There is a lot that science will learn from the observations of ISON's one way trip around the Sun. But it's a bit sad that we won't get a spectacular show. I wanted another Hale-Bopp.
And it's also a reminder to astronomers that we don't know as much as we think we do. Especially about the volatile, unpredictable balls of ice that visit us from the Oort Cloud every so often.
There is a lot that science will learn from the observations of ISON's one way trip around the Sun. But it's a bit sad that we won't get a spectacular show. I wanted another Hale-Bopp.
And it's also a reminder to astronomers that we don't know as much as we think we do. Especially about the volatile, unpredictable balls of ice that visit us from the Oort Cloud every so often.
