Science & Technology

New comet ISON pictures: The comet of the century blazes green

strangesounds.org
Sun, 13 Oct 2013 13:18 UTC

Show up ISON! You have got the green light! The latest images of ISON show the 'Comet of the Century' shining green! October 8 2013This stunner was captured by Adam Block on Ocotober 8 2013, just before sunrise, atop Mount Lemmon. This beautiful image features ISON's greenish coma, trailed by a long, straight tail.

ISON's green color comes from the gases surrounding its icy nucleus. Jets spewing from the comet's core probably contain cyanogen (CN: a poisonous gas found in many comets) and diatomic carbon (C2). Both substances glow green when illuminated by sunlight in the near-vacuum of space.

The comet is zooming within the orbit of Mars, heading toward a crucial rendezvous with the sun on Nov. 28. Get your telescope ready!

Reader Comments

chrupek · 2013-10-13T15:11:34Z

Animation of Comet ISON trajectory

[Link]

Rocker · 2013-10-13T23:51:10Z

Just saying

"Fire and meteors refer to both heaven and earth, and signify as follows; burning any thing with fire, is put for the consuming thereof by war; a conflagration of the earth, or turning a country into a lake of fire, for the consumption of a kingdom by war; the being in a furnace, for the being in slavery under another nation; the ascending up of the smoke of any burning thing for ever and ever, for the continuation of a conquered people under the misery of perpetual subjection and slavery; the scorching heat of the sun, for vexatious wars, persecutions and troubles inflicted by the King; riding on the clouds, for reigning over much people; covering the sun with a cloud, or with smoke, for oppression of the King by the armies of an enemy; tempestuous winds, or the motion of clouds, for wars; thunder, or the voice of a cloud, for the voice of a multitude; a storm of thunder, lightning, hail, and overflowing rain, for a tempest of war descending from the heavens and clouds politic, on the heads of their enemies; rain, if not immoderate, and dew, and living water, for the graces and doctrines of the Spirit; and the defect of rain, for spiritual barrenness."

OBSERVATIONS upon the PROPHECIES of DANIEL, and the APOCALYPSE of St. JOHN.
Sir ISAAC NEWTON.

JayMark · 2013-10-14T19:13:53Z

...

''Both substances glow green when illuminated by sunlight in the near-vacuum of space.''

Illuminated by sunlight?

What about these very substances emitting light due to electrical stress bringing them to an excited state?

Seems to me a lot more like electroluminescence that anything else.

boli · 2013-10-14T22:53:30Z

Cometary ice balls? Really?

The ice-ball theory of comets has been shown to be untrue by NASA itself. It ill-behooves SOTT to continue the "icy core" nonsense.

Rowan Cocoan · 2013-10-15T04:00:28Z

Boli -SOTT link doesn't equal SOTT

Boli -a mere SOTT link doesn't equal SOTT. (Hell, sometimes it's appropriate for them to link a NYT article!)

If you do a quick search above on comets and electrical universe or McCanney, (sp?) you'll quickly realize that SOTT has not bought into the dirty iceball theories still contradictorily spouted out on occasion by NASA, et al., while the electric connections become ever more obvious. (Similarly, see JayMark's comments above.)

Rather, they put this here because it's got some recent and pretty pics. I imagine they didn't have time to add a comment with links to their many prior articles detailing their general thoughts on same, which they sometimes do.

R.C.