(Image Credit: E. Jehin/ESO/TRAPPIST)
NASA has posted a time lapse of the comets ISON and Encke as they travel towards a close shave with our sun.
The time lapse was captured on November 21st by the H-1 camera on NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory. ISON can be seen coming into view, along with Mercury, Planet Earth, and the Comet Encke, with the streaking comets looking like tadpoles swimming through space.
Thursday will mark a moment of truth for ISON, as it gets close to the sun it could very well fry or shatter due to the suns power. Should it somehow survive, ISON will be visible to the naked eye all through December from the Northern Hemisphere.
First detected over a year ago, this will be the first time the comet will pass through our inner solar system. It is believed that the comet holds pristine matter from the beginnings of our solar system. Researchers believe that its origin is from the Oort cloud which resides at the edge of our solar system, which many icy bodies and comets call home. For reasons unknown, ISON was pulled out of this cloud by the sun’s gravitational pull.
Check out the article here at The Daily Mail.
