Comets

The comet ISON tracked by the STEREO satellite (Image NASA/STEREO)

1

In recent months, the comet ISON was the center of attention not only of astronomers, amateur and professional, but also of the general public because it had been mentioned as a possible comet of the century for its great brightness. It was followed and photographed by instruments on the ground and in space, including the good old Hubble Space Telescope, especially yesterday, when it moved close to the Sun. It was the most critical moment and it seemed that ISON was destroyed by the Sun’s gravity but after a few hours at least some fragments came out.

The Deep Impact space probe during its test phase (Photo NASA)

0

NASA has officially declared the end of the mission of the Deep Impact space probe. On July 4, 2005, an impactor launche by the probe hit the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 in order to analyze its debris but it was also used to study other comets and for the observation of exoplanets. Last month, NASA lost communications with Deep Impact and after a month of failed attempts to establish them again the agency had to declare the end of the mission.

3552 Don Quixote seen by the Spitzer Space Telescope. On the left you can see its coma and tail. On the right an elaborate processing shows its tail (Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/DLR/NAU)

0

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has allowed to establish that the asteroid 3552 Don Quixote is actually a comet. Research on this celestial body belonging to the NEO (near-Earth object) class, one of those whose orbit is close to that of the Earth or crosses it, was coordinated by researchers at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona.