Best Glimpse Yet of Comet ISON Provided by Hubble Telescope

NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) photographed on April 10. Astronomers are expecting a lot out of Comet ISON. Due to pass incredibly close to the sun on November 28 of this year (700,000 miles from the star's surface), the frozen rock will make for a stunning sight, potentially outshining even the full moon. A Hubble Space Telescope photo released yesterday provides the clearest view of the comet so far and suggests a few surprises. This image of ISON was snapped while the comet was about 286 million miles from the sun (slightly closer than Jupiter’s orbit). It shows the distant object should be as fantastic a sight as astronomers expect, while also clueing them in to some of its surprising properties. Like all comets, ISON’s heart is a “dirty snowball” of a nucleus---a solid mix of rock, dust, and frozen gases. The nucleus is smaller ...