Thursday, October 4, 2012

APOD 1.6

APOD October 1st, 2012: Comet Ison

It is difficult to spot some comets for they are objects that move at incredible speeds and can disappear from view in just hundreds of years, which is very lengthy when concerned with astronomy. This comet could soon grow into one of the brightest visible in the night sky with Earth as the point of view. That is one possibility but another is if the comet gets too close to the sun, and breaks apart into pieces, floating aimlessly through space. Astronomers hope that the first option comes true so that they are able to study the object. It has a magnitude of 18, which is very low, very impressive that the Russian astronomer who discovered it was able to see it. In just 15 months however, the dirty snowball could a completely different object at a very different distance.


See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
 the highest resolution version available.

1 comment:

  1. It is incredible that we are able to spot comets such as this one. It is a true privilege because it can aid in discovering multiple aspects about the universe.

    ReplyDelete