Comet ISON's Dance Among the Stars

There is a “new” comet in our neighborhood. Discovered in September 2012 by two Russian scientists, it has officially been designated as C2012/S1, but the world has come to know it as comet ISON—an acronym for the Russian International Science Observation Network through which it was discovered. Here, the comet looks like a bright white smudge [top right] among other colorful distant stars and galaxies on a canvas that depicts interstellar space. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope observed ISON on April 30, 2013, as it passed near the orbit of Jupiter. The resulting image, shown here, combines observations from two Hubble filters and is a simulation of what our eyes, with their ability to dynamically adjust to brighter and fainter objects, would see if we could look up at the heavens with the resolution of Hubble. One filter lets in red light, represented as faint red shades, while the other filter lets in a greenish-yellow light, represented as faint blue shades. In general, faint red objects are older and more evolved than blue objects—this is true both for the crosshair-spiked stars and the smaller and dimmer smudges of distant galaxies. This newly discovered comet is believed to have originated in the Oort Cloud—a “source region” for many comets, located on the fringe of the solar system. Scientists believe that ISON is making its very first trek toward the sun, and its first known visit will be an extremely close encounter—making the potential for new discovery very high.

Used in 2014 SMD Calendar.

See the following sources:

• http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/publications/25
• http://spacetelescope.org/images/opo1331a/