[meteorite-list] Comet ISON Brings Holiday Fireworks

[Ron Baalke]

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2013/24/image/a/

News Release Number: STScI-2013-24
July 2, 2013

Comet ISON Brings Holiday Fireworks

ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

This July 4th the solar system is showing off some fireworks of its own.

Superficially resembling a skyrocket, Comet ISON is hurtling toward the 
Sun at a whopping 48,000 miles per hour.

Its swift motion is captured in this time-lapse movie made from a sequence 
of pictures taken May 8, 2013, by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. At the 
time the images were taken, the comet was 403 million miles from Earth, 
between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

The movie shows a sequence of Hubble observations taken over a 43-minute 
span, compressed into just five seconds. The comet travels 34,000 miles 
in this brief video, or 7 percent of the distance between Earth and the 
Moon. The deep-space visitor streaks silently against the background stars.

Unlike a firework, the comet is not combusting, but in fact is pretty 
cold. Its skyrocket-looking tail is really a streamer of gas and dust 
bleeding off the icy nucleus, which is surrounded by a bright, star-like-looking 
coma. The pressure of the solar wind sweeps the material into a tail, 
like a breeze blowing a windsock.

As the comet warms while it moves closer to the Sun, its rate of sublimation 
will increase. The comet will get brighter and the tail will grow longer. 
The comet is predicted to reach naked-eye visibility in November.

The comet is named after the organization that discovered it, the Russia-based 
International Scientific Optical Network.

This false-color, visible-light image was taken with Hubble's Wide Field 
Camera 3.

Object Name: Comet ISON

Image Type: Astronomical

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)