Comet ISON
Comet ISON as captured by TRAPPIST on 15 November 2013 | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Vitaly Nevsky Artyom Novichonok |
| Discovery site | ISON–Kislovodsk (D00) |
| Discovery date | 21 September 2012 |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| 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 |
| 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) |
| Inclination | 62.4° |
| Last perihelion | 28 November 2013 |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 0.6–1.4 km (0.37–0.87 mi) |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 10.2 |
| –2.0 (2013 apparition) | |
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).