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Friday, April 26, 2013

Icarus Comet ISON Pix

Icarus Comet ISON Pix
Hubble Space Telescope captured images on April 10 of Comet ISON.  ISON, is classified, an Icarus or Sungrazing Comet because of its close distance at perihelion to the Sun.  On November 28th, ISON will be 700,000 miles from the Sun.  The April 10th image taken as ISON hurtled towards inner solar system just within orbit of Jupiter.  Universe Today article explains, "comets become more active as they near the inner solar system, where the Sun's heat evaporates their ices into jets of gases and dust. But even at this great distance ISON is already active, with a strong jet blasting dust particles off its nucleus. As these dust particles shimmer in reflected sunlight, a portion of the comet's tail becomes visible in the Hubble image."  Will Comet ISON live up to advanced billing as one of brightest comets ever?

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