A lecture titled ‘Is the fate of Comet ISON a fluke?’ by Dr. Nalin Samarasinha will be held on Monday, December 30, at 5 p.m. at the NPLT Department of Physics, University of Colombo, Colombo 7. All are welcome. Comet ISON, initially described by some as the comet of the century disrupted when it came [...]

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Lecture on the fate of Comet ISON

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A lecture titled ‘Is the fate of Comet ISON a fluke?’ by Dr. Nalin Samarasinha will be held on Monday, December 30, at 5 p.m. at the NPLT Department of Physics, University of Colombo, Colombo 7. All are welcome.

Comet ISON, initially described by some as the comet of the century disrupted when it came close to the Sun. The path of the comet took it to within 1.7 solar radii (1,200,000 km) from the surface of the Sun.

After a brief introduction to comets, the likely causes for the demise of comet ISON will be discussed. After the lecture a realistic model of a comet will be demonstrated using locally available material.

Dr. Nalin Samarasinha is a Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona. He has studied comets for about 25 years and has authored nearly 50 publications. He is the lead-author of the first peer-reviewed publication related to comet ISON which was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. In recognition of his contributions to cometary science, asteroid 12871 is named (12871) Samarasinha.

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