Comet ISON is on what could be a suicide course towards the Sun. Researchers is wondering if it will survive the close encounter.
The comet is set to fly by the Sun on Nov. 28, if it survives the fiery encounter Earthly onlookers will be able to see the comet blazing through the sky over the following month, Nature.com reported.
Even if ISON meets its demise, it will be the first time researchers will ever get to observe a "'dynamically new' comet - a pristine, first-time visitor from deep space that will not return - on course to pass very close to the Sun," Nature.com reported.
"That's what makes it so unusual," Matthew Knight, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory said. "There may be totally unexpected things that come up."
Researchers performed "new numerical simulations" and compared them with the history past comets' movement, especially near the Sun, a Southwest Research Institute press release reported.
If the comet is not large enough the Sun will quickly cause the ice to evaporate, very little is known about ISONs size but if it is smaller than 200 meters in diameter it will almost certainly disappear.
ISON also must be able to survive the "tidal forces of the Sun," which could rip the comet to shreds as it passes. The comet must be dense enough to fight the forces in order to prevail.
A non-spinning or back-spinning comet also has a better chance of survival because it will be able to counteract some of the Sun's violent forces.
"A major part of our work was to test if the encounter with the Sun would provide enough of a spin increase to pull material off the surface of the comet," Doctor Kevin Walsh, a research scientist in SwRI's Planetary Science Directorate, said. "When the comet passes near the Sun, it feels the tidal forces pulling on it, and it also gets a slight spin increase due to this rapid flyby. This spin increase is in the prograde direction, so if the comet is already spinning prograde, then it's just that much closer to spinning fast enough to lose mass."
The researchers concluded the comet was unlikely to fall victim to the Sun, but there is still always the possibility.
