A comet that some experts are already suggesting will be "the Comet of the Century" may be on a solar trip that will allow it to be seen by during the day by Earth-bound observers later this year. Qualified as a "sungrazer" by Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab, the orbit of the comet will bring it incredibly close to the sun, something NASA knows of as a "spectacular thing."
At first, ISON didn't look like much, and even now can only be sought out amongst its star-stuff brethren by a large telescope.
First pointed out by in September 2012, ISON was named after the night sky survey program (International Scientific Optical Network) through which its discoverers - Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok - first founded the comet.
Currently no more than a speck of light near Jupiter, "this dirty snowball" - in the words of Science @ NASA - will fly to a distance of slightly more than one-million kilometers from the surface of the Sun on November 28, 2013.
Should it survive this likely potential kamikaze run, ISON could create a global sensation, as it will be seen as effulgent as the Moon and thus visible during the day on Earth.
Hence why ISON's being projected as the "Comet of the Century."
"I'm old enough to remember the last 'Comet of the Century,'" quips Don Yeomans of NASA's Near Earth Objects Program, who feels such a qualification viz. ISON may be "premature."
Yeomans is here referring to the fizzling letdown of 1973's less-than-stellar Comet Kohoutek. Even Johnny Carson made light of the hot air hype surrounding Kohoutek's alleged big show that never was.
"Comets are notoriously unpredictable," says Yeomans.
Battams concurs that ISON has "the potential to do nothing."
Nevertheless, the large size of ISON may favor its ability to survive the trip to the Sun and thus be seen during the day on Earth, particularly when compared to the smaller (by half) Comet Lovejoy, which "wowed" terrestrial observers for weeks in 2011.
Regardless of what happens, ISON will pass almost directly over the North Pole and thus will be a "circumpolar object" visible to Northern observers all night long.
Follow @profklickberg
