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In November of 2013 sky watchers around the world
eagerly waited the approach of the comet ISON.
Double the comet of the century by several in the media
some astronomers had projected a stupendous commentary display
as ISON approached its perihelion.
The comment was also the subject of countless bizarre speculations
from the claim that ISON had somehow turned Mars into a comet
to the idea that ISON was actually the planet Nibiru.
However, despite the heightened expectations
ISON ultimately prove to be something of a fizzled
In November 28, scientists first suspected that ISON had disintegrated
as its activity appeared to cease
but as the comet moved away from the Sun it appeared to flare up before disappearing
today astronomers are uncertain as to whether the comet has fully disintegrated
or if inactive fragments may have survived
but several unanswered questions remain about comet ISON
begin with astronomers early overestimation of the size of the comet nucleus
NASA's official time line of comet ISON's journey states
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope observed Comet ISON
at 386 million miles away from the Sun on April 10th.
Preliminary Hubble observations provided surprising results:
The nucleus of the comet appeared to be no larger than 3 to 4 miles across.
Since the comet was so bright and so active,
scientists had assumed the nucleus was larger.
However, the estimated size of the nucleus was later downgraded to less than 1 mile.
Why do astronomers face such difficulties in estimating the size of a comet nucleus?
The size of the comet ISON was overestimated at the beginning
and it was downgraded in April to about 3 to 4 miles across
but even then it was expected that as it went around the Sun
and being on its first journeys that would put on a spectacular display
and be even more spectacular perhaps after leaving the Sun.
That wasn't to be and the reason for that is that you cannot estimate
the size of an object by its electrical effects.
ISON shown so brilliantly while it still located around the orbit of Jupiter
and researchers theorize that the coma brightness meant
that it was a rather huge comet,
also at the time Hubble observed gases in dusty coma
that surrounded the solid body of the nucleus
measured over 3,000 miles in diameter,
but in the electrical model the size of the coma
there's no relationship to the size of the object but to its electrical characteristics
how much charge it carries compared to its surroundings.
We have an earlier example where comet Holmes come to surprised astronomers
by being the largest objects in the solar system.
When comet ISON traveled closest to the Sun it fizzled out
and in fact it was thought for a while disappeared completely.
So, the question is how do you take a half mile wide comet and turned into nothing?
Well, the answer is that the comet displays an electrical phenomena.
So the body itself can remain intact, but not put on such a display.
I think this is what happened in the case of comet ISON.
In fact the tail afterward when it did reappear was faint
and appeared more like a dusty tail rather than the normal electrical tail.
That could have been due mainly to the intense heating of surface materials.
So, it's probably one time when the standard models of comets actually was applicable.
While most astronomers predicted a great display from ISON at its perihelion
the predictions of one astronomer, who has studied the light signatures
of several comets, proved to be the most accurate.
Everyone seemed to be predicting that comet ISON would turn on a magnificent display
as it left the Sun and headed towards the outer solar system once again.
However, there's one scientist who has a lot of experience with comets
and he was able to point out that
it was entirely predictable that comet ISON would fizzle out.
He felt it wouldn't entirely disintegrate.
Now, the fact that there are some remnant appears to appeared after passing the Sun
doesn't denigrate his work at all because he has taken readings
of the brightness of many, many comets and shown that they are, I think,
about 4 other comets who showed the same characteristic as comet ISON,
that is the brightness of the comet increases
until it gets to a certain distance from the Sun and then suddenly
decreases and then flattens out and doesn't increase as expected.
Now, he predicted, back in July of this year, that comet ISON would disappear
and he was almost right, it seems with this particular comet.
From the electrical point of view, looking at comets as an electrical phenomenon
it seems that we have to be careful not to apply the electrical model
to the exclusion of the standard model.
And I say this because the electrical model of the comet
provides the star-like brightness of the nucleus in the form of cathode discharge
it provides explanations for its filamentary tails
which are not explained very well by standards theory.
But what happens if the discharge goes out?
If for some reason the comet riches accommodation with its environment
and the discharge quenches and this is quite sudden
and this is the kind of thing that the astronomer Ignacio Ferrin points out
in his paper that the light curve of these comets that fizzled out
suddenly drops its sudden event and it's not explained by any standard theory.
However, from the electrical model, of course, an electrical discharge can stop suddenly
that's it stops and starts suddenly
Ignacio Ferrin points out that the very sharp discontinuity in brightness of the comet
as it approaches the orbit of the Earth and closer to the Sun
implies it's not outburst of a cometary outburst
and he says there are some fundamental physical process that goes on here
that we do not understand.
And I would suggest that, that physical process
is the quenching of prior electric discharges.
So, it appears that in the case have comet ISON it was already beginning to sputter
the discharge is beginning to sputter before it reached its orbit close to the Sun.
And when it went around the Sun it brighten up, of course,
but after passing the Sun it appears that all we saw was a dusty tail and no nucleus
and this is what I would expect if the discharge was quenched
and the dust and so on that was being produced was rather like that of an asteroid.
Recent asteroids have shown a dusty tail as they passed around the Sun.
In that case just the shear heating of any volatile material on the surface
or the extreme gravitational effects as the comet swings around the Sun,
all these things can tend to tear it apart
or to pull material of the surface and distribute it.
Referring to professor Ferrin's statement that the complexity
of the change in brightness of comet ISON and others like it
is unexplained should also be looked at from the electrical comet model
from the point of view of the change in nature of the surface of the comet
as it gets very close to the Sun.
As itself beyond Earth's orbit the comet acts like what's known as a cold cathode,
in other words, the material of the castle itself is cool
in fact it's very cold in the case of comet.
However, when it reaches the vicinity of the Sun and swings close by the Sun
that cold cathode becomes a hot cathode
and the discharge characteristics will change as a result.
And this is the kind of thing that's noted by Professor Ferrin
in his charts of the brightness changes in comets.
So, this is something else that has to be considered.
So the comet behavior is quite complex,
but at present the astronomical view of comets as being dirty snowballs
just does not fit, an entirely new approach is required.
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