RIP Comet ISON? Not looking good for ‘Comet of the Century’

Astronomers are still gathering more images from the various sun-watching satellites that were observing Comet ISON, but it seems that something actually emerged on the other side of the sun along its orbit, so they haven't quite called it just yet. What this something is, though — either ISON in all its glory, a smaller 'mini-ISON' composed of what was left over after its brush with the sun, or just dust and fragments — still has yet to be seen.

This time-lapse video of ISON, put together with images from the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on the left and Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory A (STEREO-A) on the right, shows its trip around the sun really well:

As it shows, on the left the tail fades almost completely away as the comet leaves that camera's view. This was one of the sights that caused astronomers to doubt ISON had survived. However, in the view on the right, the tail fades, but doesn't disappear, and you can even see how it fans out away from the sun as the comet loops around in its orbit (the bright stationary object in the right hand view is Venus).

Here's a great composite image from two different SOHO cameras, with the Solar Dynamics Observatory filling in the sun in the middle:

What's really interesting about ISON's trip around the sun is that views from SDO didn't pick up the comet at all as we watched its progress. They have a fairly good explanation of their efforts to see it, and what may have happened to let ISON slip by them, on their blog (click here).

[ More Geekquinox: Flash and boom west of Montreal may have been a meteor ]

However, one point that should be made here ... whether ISON survived or not ... as far as how much scientific data that has been collected from the comet, this really could still live up to its 'Comet of the Century' title. With the number of images captured, by both amateur and professional astronomers, and with spacecraft collecting data at many different wavelengths of light, ISON is providing a treasure trove of information. What scientists learn from this will not only advance the science of comets, but will likely give us more insights into the formation of our solar system.

I'll be keeping my eye out for more updates, and I'll post them here and on Twitter when they come out!

(Images courtesy: NASA/S. Sutherland)

Geek out with the latest in science and weather.
Follow @ygeekquinox on Twitter!