Images and video of comet Elenin recorded by amateur astronomer Michael Mattiazzo in Castlemaine, Australia, seems to show the object losing some cohesion at the end of August and early September since it neared its closest method to your sun - a place included in the orbit referred to as "perihelion" - on Sept. 10.
The comet is officially known as C/2010 X1 Elenin, and was found in December by Russian astronomer Leonid Elenin.
"I had suspicions with this comet given that discovery in December 2010 that it would not survive its perihelion passage," Mattiazzo told Space.com in the email.
"C/2010 X1 Elenin is an intrinsically faint (tiny) comet generating its very first passage via the inner solar method. These 'non-periodic' comets tend to perform below expectations in contrast to reliable and predictable periodic comets like 1P Halley."
The famed comet Halley, better known as Halley's Comet, constitutes a pass via the inner solar method once each and every 76 years.
NASA officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told Space.com the space agency holds back for Elenin to re-emerge from the perihelion pass near the sunshine before making new observations. The area agency's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) might have the ability to view the comet in between Sept. 23 and 29.
Comet Elenin is predicted to pass through nearest to Earth on Oct. 16, when it's going to cover 22 million miles (35 million kilometers) from our planet. The comet is in between two to three miles (three to five kilometers) wide.
Mattiazzo said that he is no stranger to seeing comets fizzle while they near direct sunlight.
"I witnessed the spectacular demise of C/1999 S4 LINEAR in July 2000, if it appeared as a possible elongated cigar shaped smudge via binoculars," Mattiazzo said. "This time about, C/2010 X1 Elenin is far more challenging to see considering that it really is situated really low in the western evening sky and only then, observable on the Southern Hemisphere. Let's hope that northerners have some thing to discover by the point it reappears in October morning skies. Maybe a very faint, long, diffuse smudge."
NASA astronomers have employed some space telescopes to look at comet Elenin's pass by way of the inner solar method. Last month, originates from agency's Stereo sun-watching spacecraft spotted the icy comet.
Comet Elenin has gained an Web following largely as a result of apocalyptic rumors that claim the comet will align for some other planets and wreak havoc. One more doomsday scenario claims that Elenin isn't a comet at all, but the truth is a rogue planet known as Nibiru that may also bring concerning the end times we know.
NASA has dismissed all claims that comet Elenin is something far more than a dim comet.
"Any approximate alignments of comet Elenin for some other celestial bodies are meaningless, as well as the comet will not encounter any dark bodies that will perturb its orbit, nor would it influence us by any means here on this planet," Don Yeomans, a scientist at JPL, said in a very statement recently.
Post a Comment