Immediately after co-discovering Comet ISON the night of Sept. 21, 2012, Russian astronomer Vitali Nevski trumpeted it as a “comet of the century.” Although it initially fell short as visual spectacle, Comet ISON has fully lived up to its billing as a scientific sensation.
“It’s letting us look at material that formed 4.56 billion years ago and learn about the initial conditions that helped lead to the planets,” says Comet ISON Observing Campaign (CIOC) leader Carey Lisse, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory.
Comet ISON originated in the deep freeze of the distant Oort Cloud, then took a flaming plunge almost straight into the sun. “It came close enough to boil off everything that’s in comets: water, methane, ammonia, even rock and metal,” Lisse says. Analysis of those components is underway. Raw data will also be made available to amateur sleuths.
Among the early results: While still ...
