This is so great - view of two comets, Mercury and Earth - as a video!

[NRaleighLiberal]

The Earth is on the right, Mercury on the left (vertical lines are just artifacts of the imaging) - and you can see comet ISON moving toward the sun at the left, and smaller comet Encke on the right - and you can see the puffs of solar wind (which are moving right to left) impacting the tails!

ISON has its closest encounter with the sun on Thanksgiving day....if it survives, it could become a pretty impressive night sky object soon after - we shall see!

full article here.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/11/25/comet_ison_pictures_and_info.html

[snooper2]

1. now we can understand the evolution of sperm

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. .

[leftyohiolib]

4. omg as i watched this i thought the same thing . looks like sperm

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

2. Now,

that is cool!

[hootinholler]

5. Um, are they sure about Earth and Mercury?

It seems to me that if ISON is moving towards the sun that Mercury should be on the right. The solar wind is moving from the right as well.

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. good point. interesting how the comet's tails undulate with the solar winds in the vid...

[hootinholler]

7. It is filed under "bad astronomy"

So if they are misidentified, it would fit.

[NRaleighLiberal]

8. I've seen other reports on this pic and think it is labeled correctly -

it is the location of the satellite that took the pic and perspective (and angle) that makes it look like the Earth is in the wrong place.