New image of Ison with Mars and Regulus by Norbert Mrozek

This great image of Ison was captured by astronomer Norbert Mrozek and cleaned up by the good people at comet Ison news. You can see Ison to the left of the photo, Mars in the centre while Regulus is to the right. We love the clarity of this shot as well as the glare from Mars!

Ison, Mars and Regulus by Norbert Mrozek

Ison Location Update 28/09/2013

These are the current co-ordinates for Ison at 19.25 GMT  28/09/2013

Co-ordinates: 09h 29m 59.8s,   18* 03'  41.1"
Distance from Sun: 253,134,203 km
Distance from Earth: 331,329,671 km
Magnitude: 11.25

For those who don't know you can track Ison in real time from the comfort of your computer by visiting the fantastic The Sky live website

With thanks to The Sky Live

Comet Ison location update 25/09/2013

Comet Ison location update 25/09/2013

These are the current co-ordinates for Ison at 19:15 GMT  25/09/2013

Co-ordinates: 09h 23m 58.7s,   18* 37' 27.0"
Distance from Sun: 261,454,125 km
Distance from Earth: 344,360,900 km
Magnitude: 11.45

For those who don't know you can track Ison in real time from the comfort of your computer by visiting the fantastic The Sky live website

Ison's current location  25/09/2013    with thanks to The Sky Live

A newbies guide to Ison part 3

How fast is Ison?

Ison is moving fast! As of September she is traveling at approximately 107826 kph (67,000 mph), at this speed it would take Ison just 10 seconds to travel the entire length of the M1 motorway! 

But that's not the whole story, Ison is accelerating. As the comet gets closer to the sun, the effect of the suns gravity is stronger and will cause Ison to speed up. In December when Ison reaches the sun, the sun will "slingshot" her back out into the solar system at tremendous speed. Remember when you were a kid running up to a lamp post, grabbing hold of it and being swung round? Remember how you suddenly speed up, well swap the lamppost for the sun and you for Ison! (If you don't remember doing it, go and have a go now!)

When Ison goes through this slingshot around the sun we expect her to reach speeds of up to 1,359,895 kph (845,000 mph)! At this speed the M1 would take just 0.8 seconds, it is rumoured that Jeremy Clarkson has been seen building a giant harpoon to try and capture Ison.......

Where did Ison come from?

We believe Ison came from the Oort cloud. Our solar system sits inside a large ball shaped cloud of ice and rocks. This is the Oort cloud and is generally considered to be the boundary of the solar system and the birth place of most comets. 

You may notice on the picture above that the cloud has two parts, the inner cloud and the outer cloud. Imagine a football with a dinner plate inside. The outer cloud is where we think Ison came from. The Oort cloud contains trillions of frozen objects, mainly water, ammonia and methane.

The edge of the Oort cloud is about one light year away from the sun, around 22,5000,000,000,000 km (13,950,000,000,000 miles) and at this distance the effect of the suns gravity is very weak. It’s thought that the gravitational effect from our neighbouring stars dislodge chunks of ice and push them in to our solar system where they become comets, like Ison. Very little is known about the Oort cloud in fact most of it is theory, we have yet to send a space probe there! 

What is Ison's mass?

Just like size, it's not easy to work out the mass of comets! Many astronomers are reluctant to even take a guess, but we will! We have estimated Ison to be 3,175,146,590 kg. This estimate was reached by a mean average of estimates from 11 BCRS members. All the estimates were within a 9% range, so we are quietly confident with its accuracy. That said, new data is coming in daily so we might revise this figure in the future, but we would be surprised if it was by much! 

How close to earth will Ison get?

At its closest point Ison will be 69,000,000 km (39,900,000 miles) from earth on the 26th of December.