HASTINGS residents have the opportunity of viewing what’s been called the ‘Comet of the century’ – better known as Comet Ison – through powerful telescopes as it passes earth on its way around the sun this weekend.
World-renowned local astronomer, writer and lecturer Dave Reneke and members of his Mid Coast Astronomy Group will be perched high on Big Brother Mountain Laurieton from 4am this Sunday morning – and you are invited to join them if you would like to.
“We want to give everyone the opportunity of catching this much heralded object as it makes it’s one and only pass through the solar system,” Dave said.
Like all comets, Ison is a big ball of frozen gases and water mixed with rock and dust. This ball, the comet’s nucleus, appears to be about four kilometres wide, large as comets go. These bodies are leftover ‘building blocks’ from the birth of the solar system. Studying them helps scientists understand how earth and the other planets took shape.
As Ison approaches the sun, the heat vaporises some of the comet’s icy surface. The sun pushes some of this material outward to form a glowing tail.
“It could turn out to be the biggest sky event in one hundred years, or the biggest fizzer – we just don’t know what it’s going to do until it passes us,” Dave said.
Some are speculating the comet may break up from the gravity of the sun, others think we may be pummelled with a huge meteor shower. It could even fall into the sun! Comet Ison is being observed by a tremendous variety of telescopes on earth and beyond. If Ison does disintegrate, it will be the best observed cosmic explosion in history.
“As it is low on the eastern horizon on our coastline, the best time to look for Comet Ison is an hour and a half before local sunrise,” Dave said.
“We’ll give you a good view of it from Big Brother, so bring the family along, and we’ll be turning the telescopes on Jupiter and other sky goodies as well.”
