As Comet ISON makes its journey toward the Sun, NASA's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured images of the comet zapping past the Red Planet.
ISON is the most awaited comet of the century. The comet was discovered by Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok in September 2012. The celestial body is currently making a trip toward the Sun and will come closest to Earth Dec. 26. On this day, sky watchers can expect a spectacular view of the sky.
Tthe High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) stationed on the Red Planet was able to capture images of the cosmic body zapping past the planet.
The images captured September 29, 2013 were released Thursday and show a blurry but bright object at the center with the stars as background. According to researchers, the comet's coma is very faint and hence, the new images of the comet can help them get a better insight about the size of the comet nucleus and its overall brightness, key measurements to understand its behavior and useful for subsequent observers.
"Based on preliminary analysis of the data, the comet appears to be at the low end of the range of brightness predictions for the observation. As a result, the image isn't visually pleasing but low coma activity is best for constraining the size of the nucleus," researchers Alan Delamere and Alfred McEwen said, describing the images in a press release. "This image has a scale of approximately 8 miles (13.3 km) per pixel, larger than the comet, but the size of the nucleus can be estimated based on the typical brightness of other comet nuclei. The comet, like Mars, is currently 241 million kilometers from the Sun. As the comet gets closer to the sun, its brightness will increase to Earth-based observers and the comet may also become intrinsically brighter as the stronger sunlight volatilizes the comet's ices."
The comet will be visible to the naked eye Nov. 6 before it approaches the sun at a distance of 724,000 miles Nov. 28. The comet has already raised a lot of curiosity and an earlier report suggested that NASA will soon be launching a giant balloon named BRRISON to study the comet.
"By ascending above 99.5% of the Earth's atmosphere, BRRISON will be able to study the materials within the comet," Andy Cheng, principal investigator, said on BRISSON's website. "It's possible that water and organic chemicals on comets may have played an important role in the evolution of life on Earth."
