Comet ISON is approaching the Sun and astronomers have already guarantee that the show will be amazing. In fact, thanks to its size and an orbit that will bring it very close to the Sun, in November 2013 it could be as bright as the full Moon. On April 10, the Hubble Space Telescope took some amazing new photos of this comet, which is already active despite being just slightly closer to the Sun than Jupiter.

Comet ISON, classified as C/2012 S1, was discovered on September 21, 2012 by astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok of the International Scientific Optical Network or ISON, which gave the comet its name. Later images were found that included it in previous observations dating back to the end of 2011.

The hyperbolic orbit of Comet ISON suggests that it comes from the Oort Cloud, a spherical cloud surrounding the solar system that consists mainly of comets that occasionally are attracted towards the Sun. It’s still a theoretical hypothesis because this cloud is too far away for us to be able to observe the objects that compose it.

When a comet approaches the inner solar system, the Sun heats it up more and more causing a greater and greater sublimation of its icy compounds. This phenomenon creates the extraordinary show of a comet’s tail. In the case of Comet ISON, although its distance from the Sun is at the moment still about 620 million kilometers (about 386 million miles), the tail is already forming and currently it extends for about 92,000 kilometers (57,000 miles).

The emission of gas has also led the head of the comet ISON to widen, so that now it has a width of about 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles). This is due to a lot of dust and gas surrounding the nucleus, which is really small because it has a width estimated at between 4.8 and 6.5 kilometers (3 to 4 miles), meaning about one-thousandth of the head of the comet.

It’s estimated that in November Comet ISON will pass about 1.2 million kilometers (730,000 miles) from the Sun’s surface, a distance that leaves a margin of uncertainty which in this case can really change the fate of this comet. In fact, when it arrives so close to the Sun its nucleus may disintegrate.

For now we can admire the photos of Comet ISON taken by the Hubble Space Telescope but we can consider it just an appetizer for a big party for astronomers but also for ordinary people who will enjoy a great celestial show.

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