What is so interesting about comet ISON?

There’s great interest in comet ISON for a couple of reasons.  First of all, it’s coming from the very edge of our solar system so it stills retains the primordial ices from which it formed four-and-a-half billion years ago.  It’s been traveling from the outer edge of the solar system for about five-and-a-half million years to reach us in the inner solar system, and it\’s going to make an extremely close approach to the sun and hence could become very bright and possibly a very easy naked-eye object in early December.

via Three Questions About Comet ISON | NASA.

Nov. 24, 2013: In 2007, astronomers were amazed when a solar storm hit Comet Encke. NASA STEREO spacecraft watched as a CME coronal mass ejection struck the comet head on and ripped off its tail.imageA CME strikes Comet Encke in April 2007. Movie, Full storyThe same thing could be in store for Comet ISON–only worse.On Nov. 28th, Comet ISON will pass through the sun\’s atmosphere, flying little more than a million kilometers above the sun\’s surface. It will be ~30 times closer to the sun than Encke was in 2007 and more likely to encounter a ferocious solar storm.\”For one thing,\” says Angelos Vourlidas of the Naval Research Lab and a participant in NASA\’s Comet ISON Observing Campaign CIOC, \”the year 2007 was near solar minimum. Solar activity was low. Now, however, we are near the peak of the solar cycle and eruptions are more frequent.\”

via Comet ISON vs. the Solar Storm – NASA Science.

NASA\’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer LADEE is ready to begin collecting science data about the moon.On Nov. 20, the spacecraft successfully entered its planned orbit around the moon\’s equator — a unique position allowing the small probe to make frequent passes from lunar day to lunar night. This will provide a full scope of the changes and processes occurring within the moon\’s tenuous atmosphere.LADEE now orbits the moon about every two hours at an altitude of eight to 37 miles 12-60 kilometers above the moon\’s surface. For about 100 days, the spacecraft will gather detailed informati

via NASA Spacecraft Begins Collecting Lunar Atmosphere Data | NASA.

On April 27, a blast of light from a dying star in a distant galaxy became the focus of astronomers around the world. The explosion, known as a gamma-ray burst and designated GRB 130427A, tops the charts as one of the brightest ever seen.A trio of NASA satellites, working in concert with ground-based robotic telescopes, captured never-before-seen details that challenge current theoretical understandings of how gamma-ray bursts work.

via NASA Sees Watershed Cosmic Blast in Unique Detail | NASA.