Knight Science Journalism @MIT

Science Journalism in the Public Interest

by Charlie Petit / January 4th 2013

A News Bounce or, more’n one way to freelance on comet set to zoom near sun next Nov. A super-spectacle?

First reported by Russian amateur astronomers in September and by a lot of the specialty press at the time, and now getting a second news bounce including at one major wire service, comet ISON (for an astronomy consortium called the International Scientific Optical Network) is boring into the inner solar system as we sit. It appears to hail from the Oort Cloud way out there Barely pertinent aside: the OC is part of the Sun's family, is way beyond where Voyager I is now, so please again scotch the idea that said long-traveling probe is anywhere near exiting the solar system. As for ISON, its orbit will pivot around the sun just 1.2 million km or 800,000 miles from the solar surface and that's close. It's hot in there. If the experience does not cause the comet to fritter and tatter then on its way back out its bright coma and tail could be stupendous, brighter overall than the moon, visible during the daylight, hot diggity space-o-rama damma ding dong.

   This post is in part a salute to what could be a good running science yarn during the wait for this thing's perihelion even should it go all Kahoutek on us and fall far short of stupendous.

   But also a chance to appreciate one subset of stories that just joined the ISON parade. They are different. Here are the opening lines of each:

  • Discovery News (Dec 28): Newly Found Comet could outshine the moon / "Skywatchers may be in for a rare treat in 2013 — a newly discovered comet is expected to pass very close to the sun, putting on what could be the celestial show of a century. Two amateur astronomers in Russia are credited with finding the object known as Comet ISON…."
  • Reuters (Dec. 28) : Approaching comet may outshine the moon / "A comet blazing toward Earth could outshine the full moon when it passed by at the end of next years – if it survives its close encounter with the sun. The recently discovered object, known as comet ISON, is due to fly within 1.2 million miles (1.9 million km) from the center of the sun on Nov. 28…"

   Yes, you say, different stories but usually that distinction implies the stories conflict in some way. Not this time, for they are both written by longtime solar system and space rocketry writer Irene Klotz. For quite awhile, back when I was lead writer at ksjtracker, I thought she was on staff at Reuters. More recently it penetrated my dim cranium that she also writes a lot for Discovery News in more of a blog style (Discovery labels her pieces, usually, 'analysis.') She is one of the very solid characters in this business – with a consistent beat, and a consistent accuracy and crisp styles that gets right to the point. We've met, usually in press rooms and the most recently at the 2011 AGU meeting in SF.

   But who does she work for? A phone call to her in Melbourne Beach, Florida (she's lived near Cape Canaveral for about 30 years) cleared that up. For 21 years, ever since she had a now-grown baby boy, she has been entirely freelance but with regular gigs to keep the money coming in. So when I asked who employed her she laughed at me and said "Welcome to science writing in the 21st century." Except she started the freelance-for-big-outlet routine a long time ago, ergo is somewhat of a pioneer. She'd been a staffer at Florida Today, UPI too, and was an early contributor to Space.com back when the boisterous Lou Dobbs set it up.

   She would recoil if you suggest she's double-dipping on news, selling the same yarn to more than one client. Never, she said, has any editor complained about recycling old stuff, although each of her regulars knows she writes for others and sometimes on the same general news event. "I may use the same quotes sometimes," she conceded. And these two stories are differently composed.

   As for this instance, Klotz hadn't heard of this comet (we'll have a roundup of its first burst into public in a moment) until reading a blog post in The Independent by Brit astronomer David Whitehouse last Thursday. Klotz blogged on that blog's news to Discovery News, and then pitched it to Reuters. There she also acknowledged that first reports of the new visitor from the solar system's frozen frontier territory had surfaced in September. If one searches Google News one sees that Klotz's report, mainly the Reuters one it appears, is part of a little surge right now, some of which they probably triggered.

   We can expect further trickles and spurts as the comet's make-or-break solar passage comes nearer. Some doomsday nonsense may corrupt a few of the stories. Haven't seen any of that yet.

  One does feel a bit of sympathy for readers who, on reading that this will be as bright or brighter than a full moon, believe it will be as intense as that. Not likely. If one takes a full-moon's reflected light and smears its source across a far larger patch of sky, it approaches dim. Bright as comet's go, sure. But not as dazzling as a full moon. If the sky is dark, this could be really great.

Earliest Stories:

Other Recent Stories:

Grist for the Mill: Spaceweather.com (via NASA-JPL): Tony Phillips: Big Sun-Diving Comet Discovered ;

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