Comet ISON Brightens. Late last week Comet ISON began to wake
up and now shines ten times brighter than it did just a week earlier. At
magnitude 5.5 it has finally reached naked-eye levels from dark
locations, according to observers around the world. (The lower the
magnitude number, the brighter the object.) Even so, watching the
phenomenon with binoculars and telescopes is the best way to witness
this celestial body.
The sudden brightening is due most likely to vaporization of surface
ice, leaving the comet sporting multiple tails— with the longest
stretching some five million miles (eight million kilometers) out into
space. That’s equal to more than 21 times the distance between Earth and
the moon.
What will ISON do next is anyone’s guess, but all this activity makes
it worth watching as it approaches its close encounter with the sun on
November 28.
Look for the comet near the bright star Spica low in the southeast
about an hour before your local sunrise. ISON is now visible from both
Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Sources: National Geographic
