Comet ISON: A Commentary.

Well, it appears that ISON has gone the way of Kohoutek, an object that was hyped to death by experts and the media, this thing was going to be the Comet of the Century, it will blaze across our skies, shining with a brightness that would rival the full moon.

Now, I don't pretend to know the processes involved when astronomers make predictions about the size and brightness of a particular comet, but when they were making these predictions a year in advance, it makes me wonder what they are basing these claims on? How can they say that an object that is of magnitude 18 is going to be in the region of magnitude -12? If someone can explain this to me, then please do.

Okay, we know the media are involved, with comments by "experts" stating these claims, no names are ever provided, indeed, there are reports going back across the length of the year by astronomers, who have been named, stating that ISON will not behave as reported, and could be a dud.

We all know that comets are unpredictable, comet Holmes comes instantly to mind, but the danger is now that whenever another comet enters the inner solar system, and we hear the cries of " Comet of the Century", are the public going to think, 'oh no! here we go again, crackpot scientists and geeks predicting something that is going to turn out to be nothing.'

Astronomy has suffered from some really bad press releases of late, Martian life in the Allen Hills meteorite was blazed across the world's media, and turned out to be nothing, ISON has gone down the same road, as a result, has the reputation of astronomy taken a hit?

Kohouotek was 40 years ago and is largely forgotten by most of the populace, ISON is fresh in the memory and will take some time for the people to forget it.

Speaking on a personal level, the next time I read "Comet of the Century" splashed across the newspapers and online, I will remember the Public Enemy song from 1988, "Don't Believe The Hype".

Paul

I think a lot of the hype was because the comet was originally estimated to be 50km in diameter, as it was brighter than it should have been at the discovery distance.

When we found out it was actually 2km or less, most of us expected it to fizzle out. I'm just glad I got one peek at it thru binos before it passed into history.

well, I think everyone here was disappointing when ison didnt make it around the Sun, but not surprised, I was only surprised there for a while when it looked like it had made it.
People can call you pessimistic about predictions on such events, you need to separate what you want to happen and what you think will actually happen when evaluating such things.
As for astronomy taking a hit, dont think so, there are always new things happening , for instance the latest news now is of the chinese sending a rover to the Moon, which'll be there in about a week or so, that'll grab the headlines and ison will be long forgotton.

Even though it was hyped I've had a lot of people ask me about it recently and that in itself is positive. People wondering about the universe, how our solar system is made up and crucially why scientists don't know everything and what ison even by being destroyed can tell us things we didn't know.

btw I think this obituary for ISON is quite good www.isoncampaign.org/karl/in-memoriam :)