Astronomers and amateurs are eying an opportunity to witness a rare celestial event wherein comet ISON will make a passage around the sun in next few weeks. Going by some predictions, the comet will be very bright and have a long tail.
ISON, which belongs to a special category of comets called sungrazers, is expected to become visible to the naked eye in the morning sky an hour before dawn from October-end to January-end of next year.
A national science campaign, Eyes on ISON, has been launched by many organisations, including from Pune, in view of the celestial event.
National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Navnirmiti, Jyotirvidya Pratishthan, Lokvignyan Sanghatana, Quest, College of Engineering Pune (CoEP), Akashmitra, Vigyan Parisar and Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti are some of the local organisations associated with the campaign.
"Like all comets, ISON is a ball of ice and different gases. It is coming near the sun for the first time. Therefore, its composition is believed to be similar to what it was nearly 4,000 million years ago when the solar system was formed. When the comet comes close to the sun, the ice and gases would start melting, forming a beautiful bright tail running millions of km," said NCRA's Niruj Mohan Ramanujam.
He said ISON is different in character from 'periodic' Halley's Comet that occurs after every 75 years, with the last being spotted in 1986.
As per US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), ISON will make a sweltering passage around the sun on November 28. The comet will approach within about 1.2 million km of its visible surface, which classifies ISON as a sungrazing comet.
In late November, its icy material will furiously sublimate and release torrents of dust as the surface erodes under the sun's fierce heat, all as sun-monitoring satellites look on.
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