NASA’s Swift Spacecraft Tracks Comet’s Course

By  //  April 1, 2013

Closest To Earth On Dec. 26

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BREVARD COUNTY • KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLORIDA – Astronomers are using NASA’s Swift spacecraft to check out a new comet that may become one of the most dazzling in decades when it rounds the sun later this year.

The Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope aboard NASA’s Swift imaged comet ISON (center) on Jan. 30, when it was located about 3.3 degrees from the bright star Castor in the constellation Gemini. At the time of this 5.5-minute optical exposure, ISON was about 5,000 times fainter than the limit of human vision. Image courtesy of NASA/Swift/D. Bodewits, UMCP)

Using images acquired over the last two months from Swift’s Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope, an astronomy team has made initial estimates of the comet’s water and dust production and used them to infer the size of Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON).

“Comet ISON has the potential to be among the brightest comets of the last 50 years, which gives us a rare opportunity to observe its changes in great detail and over an extended period,” said lead investigator astronomer Dennis Bodewits.

Additional factors, including an encounter with Mars followed by a scorching close approach to the sun, make comet ISON an object of special interest.

The Swift spacecraft was launched by NASA in 2004 as a partnership between the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom to study gamma-ray bursts and assist with other astronomical observations. (Image courtesy NASA Goddard Space Center)

Assistance

In late February, at NASA’s request, a team of comet experts initiated the Comet ISON Observing Campaign (CIOC) to assist ground- and space-based facilities in obtaining the most scientifically useful data.

Like all comets, ISON is a clump of frozen gases mixed with dust. Often described as “dirty snowballs,” comets emit gas and dust whenever they venture near enough to the sun that the icy material transforms from a solid to gas, a process called sublimation. Jets powered by sublimating ice also release dust, which reflects sunlight and brightens the comet.

Typically, a comet’s water content remains frozen until it comes within about three times Earth’s distance to the sun. While Swift’s UVOT cannot detect water directly, the molecule quickly breaks into hydrogen atoms and hydroxyl molecules when exposed to ultraviolet sunlight.

The UVOT detects light emitted by hydroxyl and other important molecular fragments as well as sunlight reflected from dust.

January 30th observations reveal that ISON was shedding about 112,000 pounds (51,000 kg) of dust, or about two-thirds the mass of an unfueled space shuttle, every minute. By contrast, the comet was producing only about 130 pounds (60 kg) of water every minute, or about four times the amount flowing out of a residential sprinkler system.

“The mismatch we detect between the amount of dust and water produced tells us that ISON’s water sublimation is not yet powering its jets because the comet is still too far from the sun,” Bodewits said. “Other more volatile materials, such as carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide ice, evaporate at greater distances and are now fueling ISON’s activity.”

At the time, the comet was 375 million miles (604 million km) from Earth and 460 million miles (740 million km) from the sun. ISON was at magnitude 15.7 on the astronomical brightness scale, or about 5,000 times fainter that the threshold of human vision.

Observations

Similar levels of activity were observed in February, and the team plans additional UVOT observations.

The first of several intriguing observing opportunities occurs on Oct. 1, when the inbound comet passes about 6.7 million miles from Mars.

“During this close encounter, comet ISON may be observable to NASA and ESA spacecraft now working at Mars,” said Michael Kelley, an astronomer at UMCP and also a Swift and CIOC team member. “Personally, I’m hoping we’ll see a dramatic postcard image taken by NASA’s latest Mars explorer, the Curiosity rover.”

Fifty-eight days later, on Nov. 28, ISON will make a sweltering passage around the sun. The comet will approach within about 730,000 miles (1.2 million km) of its visible surface, which classifies ISON as a sungrazing comet. In late November, its icy material will furiously sublimate and release torrents of dust as the surface erodes under the sun’s fierce heat, all as sun-monitoring satellites look on. Around this time, the comet may become bright enough to glimpse just by holding up a hand to block the sun’s glare.

Sungrazing comets often shed large fragments or even completely disrupt following close encounters with the sun, but for ISON neither fate is a forgone conclusion.

“We estimate that as much as 10 percent of the comet’s diameter may erode away, but this probably won’t devastate it,” explained Knight. Nearly all of the energy reaching the comet acts to sublimate its ice, an evaporative process that cools the comet’s surface and keeps it from reaching extreme temperatures despite its proximity to the sun.

Following ISON’s solar encounter, the comet will depart the sun and move toward Earth, appearing in evening twilight through December. It will swing past Earth on Dec. 26, approaching within 39.9 million miles (64.2 million km) or about 167 times farther than the moon.

Whether we’ll look back on ISON as a “comet of the century” or as an overhyped cosmic dud remains to be seen, but astronomers are planning to learn the most they can about this unusual visitor no matter what happens.

The $250 million Swift spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Nov. 2004 aboard a Delta II rocket and was developed through an international partnership of the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom as part of NASA’s Medium Range Explorer Program.

It is a multi-wavelength observatory in low-Earth orbit that continually scans the universe and is designed to investigate the unique phenomena of gamma-ray bursts and assist with other astronomical observations.