File:Comet_ISON_(C-2012_S1)_by_TRAPPIST_on_2013-11-15.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
C/2012 S1
Sign in to saveAlso known as Comet ISON
comet discovered in 2012, with a close approach to Earth in December 2013
Key facts
- Discovered by
- Vitaly Nevsky , Artyom Novichonok
- Discovery site
- ISON –Kislovodsk ( D00 )
- Discovery date
- 21 September 2012
- Epoch
- 14 December 2013 ( JD 2456640.5)
- Observation arc
- 2.15 years
- Number of observations
- 6,682
- Orbit type
- Oort cloud
- Perihelion
- 0.01244 AU (2.68 R ☉ )
- Eccentricity
- 1.000000086 (epoch 1950) , 0.9999947 (near perihelion) , 1.0002 (epoch 2050)
- Orbital period
- Ejection trajectory (epoch 2050)
- Max orbital speed
- 337.3 km/s (755,000 mph; 1.214 million km/h; 209.6 mi/s)
- Inclination
- 62.4°
- Last perihelion
- 28 November 2013
- Dimensions
- 0.6–1.4 km (0.37–0.87 mi)
- Apparent magnitude
- –2.0, (2013 apparition)
via Wikipedia infobox
~19 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Comet ISON, formally known as C/2012 S1, was a sungrazing comet from the Oort cloud which was discovered on 21 September 2012 by Vitaly Nevsky (Віталь Неўскі, Vitebsk, Belarus) and Artyom Novichonok (Артём Новичонок, Kondopoga, Russia).
History
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “C/2012 S1” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.