New comet in November 2013

[Harpo]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/26/new_comet_may_outshine_moon/

A new comet discovered last Friday is due in November 2013 to brighten our skies.

 

[Dave]

Is the Register a reliable source of astronomical data? - I imagined it was like the Onion and I don't want to be caught out like those Iranians were recently.

Anyway, it must be true because of this:

We may scoff at Harold's fear of Halley's Comet, but had it appeared before a US election, surely some would read it as an omen

 

[Bowler1]

It would be good to have something nice and bright in the sky, wait and see.

I enjoyed the article more because of the Harold link, which really is a bit of a jump. I can just as easily reference 'The Game of Thrones' and hope for Dragons. I know many Chrons members would be very happy to see Dragons. It's that or a warning for our local goverment elections, which I can't get all that excited about even if it were the end of the world.

 

[Harpo]

Is the Register a reliable source of astronomical data? - I imagined it was like the Onion and I don't want to be caught out like those Iranians were recently.

As a test, I googled the name of the comet (C/2012 S1) and got a bunch of other links about it. A spoof story wouldn't have much else going for it.

 

[Brian G Turner]

TheRegister - aka El Reg - is a very trustworthy source, though normally only covers technology stories.

 

[Dave]

It has a page at Wikipedia. The comet will come to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 28 November 2013, so it should really light up those dark Winter nights in the Northern Hemisphere next year. Its orbit is very parabolic, which is why they think it may be a new comet coming fresh from the Oort cloud. It should be visible to the naked eye by late October or early November and remaining so until mid-January 2014, however when the comet reaches its perihelion on 28 November it may be less than 1° from the Sun, making it difficult to see against the glare of the Sun.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this. I expect to see a lot of End of the World rubbish concerning it though. If we don't all die next month when the Mayan calendar ends.

 

[Harpo]

Is this the same comet?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/nasa-space...that-could--outshine-the-moon--164646662.html

 

[Dave]

You don't mean.... there's two of them? What if they collide?