Ison: The comet of the century

[haraldo]

Quiting bbc.co.uk
If we're lucky, then in just a few days time we could witness one of the most spectacular sights in the night sky for a generation or more.


Astronomers hope that on 3 December a comet will appear on the eastern horizon - Comet Ison.


For the whole month of December, millions of people across the northern hemisphere should be able to see its tail, which is several millions of kilometres long, stretching across the dawn sky.


Ison has come from the Oort cloud, a belt of comets on the very edge of the Solar System, where it has been for the last 4.6 billion years.


What makes Ison so special is that it is a "sungrazer". Many comets pass through the Solar System every decade, but very few go through the corona of the Sun. Ison will do just that.


Astronomers are hoping Ison behaves like Ikeya Seki, which developed a huge tail after its brush with the Sun

Full story here:
BBC News - Ison: The comet of the century

 

[j_garcia]

Was reading about it last night. Will be very cool to see for sure.

 

[agarwalro]

I'm looking forward to it too.

 

[avnetguy]

Lets hope it doesn't break up and does appear after rounding the sun.

 

[Adam]

The Oort cloud (which I think is still theoretical) is amazingly far away. I used to think that the solar system ended at Pluto (oh, poor Pluto). Hah! Pluto is no where NEAR the edge of the solar system. Unless we learn to bend space, no member of our species will ever...EVER...leave the solar system. It's just too far away. And even if we did, anything worth traveling to is immensely farther away.

Okay, enough of that. This should be very cool to see if it pans out. Well, if I go somewhere to get away from my neighbor's darn dusk-to-dawn yard lighting.