Some remnant of ISON did indeed make it around the sun, but it quickly dimmed and fizzled as seen with NASA's solar observatories. This does not mean scientists were disappointed, however. On Dec. 10, 2013, researchers presented science results from the comet's last days at the 2013 Fall American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, Calif. They described how this unique comet lost mass in advance of reaching perihelion and most likely broke up during its closest approach, as well, as summarized what this means for determining what the comet was made of. The panel shared results from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and MESSENGER to present a picture of ISON's trip around the sun, which appears to have led to its demise. The panel also reported on why ISON was not seen in images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 342191, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11434/#media_group_342191", "widget": "Single image", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "MESSENGER's narrow-angle camera series-of-stills has potential to reveal outburst from ISON in action.
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Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO", "width": 320, "height": 128, "pixels": 40960 } } ], "extra_data": {} } ], "studio": "gms", "funding_sources": [ "PAO" ], "credits": [ { "role": "Writer", "people": [ { "name": "Karen Fox", "employer": "ADNET Systems, Inc." } ] } ], "missions": [], "series": [], "tapes": [], "papers": [], "datasets": [], "nasa_science_categories": [ "Planets & Moons" ], "keywords": [ "Comet", "Comet ISON", "MESSENGER" ], "recommended_pages": [], "related": [ { "id": 11422, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11422/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "NASA's Solar Observing Fleet Watch Comet ISON's Journey Around the Sun", "description": "After several days of continued observations, scientists continue to work to determine and to understand the fate of Comet ISON: There's no doubt that the comet shrank in size considerably as it rounded the sun and there's no doubt that something made it out on the other side to shoot back into space. The question remains as to whether the bright spot seen moving away from the sun was simply debris, or whether a small nucleus of the original ball of ice was still there. Regardless, it is likely that it is now only dust. The comet was visible in instruments on NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, and the joint European Space Agency/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, via images called coronagraphs.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Credit:NASA/STEREO/ESA/SOHO/SDOGSFC || STEREO_A_Cor2_Still.jpg (1280x720) [494.6 KB] || STEREO_A_Cor2_Still_web.png (320x180) [67.2 KB] || ISON_Full_FINAL_1280x720.wmv (1280x720) [49.4 MB] || ISON_Full_FINAL_appletv.m4v (960x540) [46.4 MB] || ISON_Full_H264_1280x720_30.mov (1280x720) [43.1 MB] || ISON_Full_MPEG4_1280X720_29.97.mp4 (1280x720) [28.0 MB] || ISON_Full_FINAL_appletv.webmhd.webm (960x540) [16.6 MB] || ISON_Full_FINAL_ipod_lg.m4v (640x360) [17.5 MB] || ISON_Full_FINAL.mp4 (320x240) [8.3 MB] || ISON_Full_FINAL_ipod_sm.mp4 (320x240) [8.3 MB] || ISON_Full_ProRes_1280x720_29.97.mov (1280x720) [810.6 MB] || ISON_Full_H264_Best_1280x720_29.97.mov (1280x720) [517.2 MB] || ISON_Full_H264_Good_1280x720_29.97.mov (1280x720) [124.1 MB] || ISON_Full_FINAL_youtube_hq.mov (1280x720) [124.1 MB] || ", "release_date": "2013-11-22T11:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:51:25.912803-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 460681, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011400/a011422/ison_encke_hi1_srem_a_web.jpg", "filename": "ison_encke_hi1_srem_a_web.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) has entered the NASA STEREO/SECCHI HI-1A field of view where it joins the Earth, Mercury and comet 2P/Encke. Credit: Karl Battams/NASA/STEREO/CIOC", "width": 320, "height": 273, "pixels": 87360 } }, { "id": 4017, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4017/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Comet ISON Approaches Perihelion", "description": "Currently located beyond the orbit of Jupiter, Comet ISON is heading for a very close encounter with the sun next year. In November 2013, it will pass less than 0.012 Astronomical Units (Wikipedia) (1.8 million kilometers) from the center of the Sun, 1.2 million kilometers from the solar surface. The fierce heating it experiences in that approach could turn the comet into a bright naked-eye object.NOTE: This visualization was revised in March 2013 to fix an ephemeris error. Other enhancements were included in the revision. Also fixed an error where perihelion distance was mistakenly labeled as distance from solar surface. || ", "release_date": "2013-03-29T11:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-01-05T22:18:51.999903-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 467386, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004000/a004017/CometISON2.slate_HEEmove.HD1080i.0420.jpg", "filename": "CometISON2.slate_HEEmove.HD1080i.0420.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Visualization of the orbit of comet ISON as it moves into the inner solar system in 2013.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } ], "sources": [], "products": [], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }