“This morning, for the sake, I woke up again at dawn (Friday 29th ed.) It was 5. I waited until the last to see her in heaven, but no trace of Ison. I now think that there is no more hope of seeing her. The heat of the sun has pulverized. “
Gian Paolo Tozzi , an astrophysicist at INAF Arcetri, followed the parable of the comet at the telescope of Medicine, Bologna, along with a team of scientists.
“Our group follows the comet for a year, from October 2012, a month after its discovery. Since that time we have never released it-goes-the scholar. On the evening of Thursday 28, through the filming of SoHO, we noticed something strange. The comet had changed its appearance: the principle had a well-defined nucleus, then it became more and more weak and point, a process typical of when a comet breaks its core, is dissolved, leaving only part of the tail. “
“They’ve said so many positive things, but when a new comet plows through the space of the solar system, and does so for the first time, one must be cautious.”
“Sure-more-if it had not escaped unscathed from the contact with our star in the sky we would see an unforgettable show, with a huge tail and shiny. But it did not happen. ” Several factors have worked against the comet discovered by two astronomers Russians in September last year. First the core. Ison was one of only 4 kilometers in diameter (but even this figure is to be verified, there is those who speak of a core of two kilometers, ed) and then, another bad point, its trajectory is too close to the Sun-Hale Bopp, passed in 1997, for example, has a core of 50 kilometers. The most famous Halley, periodic comet (its passages occur about every 76 years), has a core of about 6 kilometers in diameter but does not come close to the Sun less than 150 million kilometers. Ison, however, has touched our star rising to 1.2 million kilometers. SCIENTIFIC INTEREST
But the comet Ison has been of enormous scientific interest and observers from around the world are already processing the data after collecting valuable information about its composition and its structure. “He has shown an interesting outer part of the ice-says Tozzi-and especially organic matter such as methane, acetylene and more complex molecules. It ‘a traveler who has brought with it’ a story of 4 billion years undergoing various vicissitudes: the bombing of cosmic rays, impacts and who knows what else. ” “The data collected will be processed and will be processed in the next few days-stressed Sara Beech, a researcher at INAF-and we still can not say too much in confirming, for example, the identification of the line of ammonia emitted from the cometary material. In observing sessions have also successfully tested the new receiver of the parable of Medicine, for more of a celestial object in motion that involves operating procedures at all simple. However, we are very pleased with the preliminary results, everything went in the best way. “ GROUP ARCETRI In
team of Italian scientists, coordinated by Claudio Codella , also belong to the researcher Sara Beeches and another colleague, Gianna Cauzzi , which followed the event from Sacramentro Sun Peak Observatory in New Mexico.
OTHER COMETS
Vanishes Ison, but in heaven (albeit with the aid of a small telescope), comets, there are three other (see other service). However, if in the meantime they will be discovered other comets promising, it remains a certainty: the dear old comet Halley. She does not abandon us and we will be visiting in July 2061.
Although for next Christmas we will not see a bright tail, it remains to understand what actually remains of Ison. Part of the core, in fact, seems to have survived the heat and the effects of the Sun Astronomers are observing and developing the latest data, but to understand the extent of the “zombie”. “We’ll have to wait a few days, when the remains of Ison will be close to our planet, commented succinctly Karl-Battams NASA. We have a new set of unknowns and this object so crazy, dynamic and unpredictable continues to amaze and confuse us. You have to wait a couple of days. We are analyzing the data to try to understand what is happening. “
A few more hours, then, then you hope to have much clearer ideas and, above all, to understand if the comet is capricious The time has come to draw up the certificate of death.
UltimeDalCieloBlog
enzo.vitale @ ilmessaggero.it
on Twitter @ enzotvitale
www.enzovitale.com
Friday, November 29, 2013 – 19:39
Last updated: Saturday, November 30 – 20:48
No comments:
Post a Comment