RIP Comet ISON....but is it really dead 11/28/13????

Well folks the moment of truth came and went. Comet ISON managed to hold together to make it to perihelion at 10.40am PST. The last few images we have of ISON show it dimming, indicating that the comet has indeed disrupted and as of now, 12.30pm PST, SOHO is not detecting any oxygen coming from the comet (which it should by now if it slingshot around the sun) which means the comet is probably dead and dissipated. This is kinda sad seeing I never got to see it due to crummy weather....oh well......

Sky and Telescope reports at 4.10pm EST: 
The LASCO C2 coronagraph saw only a sparse, headless debris trail come out from behind its Sun-occulting disk after perihelion. http://media.skyandtelescope.com/images/11106507235_ec20b425d7_o.gif

BUT BUT It seems like Comet ISON loves to keep us guessing...is it really dead? That is the current story. As the comet, or pieces of it moves away from the sun, a coma seems to have formed, along with a new tail. Does this mean there is still a sizeable chunk on nucleus left? We may yet get ourselves a nice Christmas Comet , ala Comet Lovejoy 2011. Here is the report from CIOC entitled Schrodinger's Comet.

Latest breaking news here: Something did survive, however ISON is not expected to put on a fantastic naked eye show. As I type this, the comet has faded to +5 magnitude.

30th of November: ISON continues to fade as reported by Sky and Telescope. 
Jacob Czerny quotes on Sky and Telescope that the comet remnant is fading at the rate expected of a simple, inactive debris cloud moving farther from the Sun's illumination.

1st of December: Updates from Sky and Telescope: Goodbye from SOHO, and a CBET summary. The Ghost of ISON continues to dim and has departed from SOHO's LASCO C3 field of view early today. There will be a 2 to 4 day blind period now that ISON has left the spacecraft views. The dim diffused remnants of Comet ISON is expected to be diffcult to detect in the morning twilight, and who knows if it would have dissipated by then...goodbye ISON and thanks for putting on a show for us, even though it was not what we expected.....

 

"Comet ISON's last few images. Note the dimming of the head prior to perihelion. Courtesy of ESA/NASA"

"All that remains of Comet ISON...a dim dusty trail of debries coming out of its fiery perihelion encounter with our sun Courtesy of NASA/ESA/SOHO"

 "Or is it the end? The Comet seems to be brightening again in this latest image from , forming a new coma and tail as it pulls away from the sun.....ISON keeps us guessing and it is going to go down as the weirdest comet of them all. Courtesy NASA/ESA/SOHO"

"Goodbye ISON. Last spacecraft views of the cometary remnants before it exits the FOV. Images courtesy of NASA/ESA/SOHO"