Post date: Nov 29, 2013 8:48:9 PM
R Reports - Call it a comet comeback. A day after scientists declared ISON dead, they're rethinking that assessment.
Scientists speculated that the comet, which was barreling toward the sun earlier in the week --- had probably flown too close and been destroyed.
Not so -- it seems. A smaller, paler version of ISON appears to have survived being completely incinerated. It's also being called the 'zombie comet'.The latest findings are consistent with the one thing scientists have repeatedly said about the comet.
ASTROPHYSICIST KARL BATTAMS
"ISON is just weird. It has behaved unpredictably at times with, when it's done something strange, we've spent some time scratching our heads, figuring out ok, what's it doing? And then when we think we know what it's doing, and we think we can predict what it's then going to do, it goes and does something different."
Preliminary analysis suggests that the zombie comet may had held onto a part of its nucleus after its close encounter with the sun.