The images of the 2013 Comet ISON that amateur astronomers captured show the latest development on the comet's close flyby to the Sun on November 28. The "Comet of the Century" has slowly grown a dust tail and now it appears to be developing a new ion tail.

In the Universe Today report, a captured image of Comet ISON from Damian Peach is featured with the caption that reads: "Two faint tail streamers are visible between Comet ISON's green coma and bright star near center in this photo taken on Nov. 6. They're possibly the beginning of an ion tail."

The report claims as well that Comet ISON's overall magnitude has been slowly but steadily increasing and the inner coma is becoming more compact. According to Casey Lisse of the Comet ISON Observing Campaign (CIOC), the Chandra X-ray Observatory recently joins the other spacecrafts in imaging the approaching comet with the prediction that its brightness will peak in between -3 to -5 magnitude during its closest flyby to the Sun.

The other spacecraft on a mission to make observations on the 2013 Comet ISON is the Balloon Rapid Response for ISON (BRRISON) that lifted off on Saturday, September 28, at 8:10 p.m. EDT from NASA's balloon facility located at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

"There are so many firsts when it comes to BRRISON," Andrew Cheng, the BRRISON principal investigator at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, stated. BRRISON will be able to observe Comet ISON with the use of infrared and near ultraviolet/visible imaging systems while suspended from the NASA scientific balloon at approximately 127,000 feet above the Earth.

Mr Cheng further added: "This is the first time we've been able to deploy this level of technology to study an Oort Cloud comet of this type, and we're doing it from a scientific balloon. The data from BRRISON's instruments should give us an unparalleled look into what frozen volatiles exist in Comet ISON - materials preserved from the formation of the solar system some 4 billion years ago, such as water and carbon dioxide. We hope to address some of the big questions we have about how planets were formed and how life may have evolved on them."

More Articles to Read:

2013 Comet ISON: Professional Photographer Justin Ng Captures the 'Comet of the Century' October 27 Journey - [READ]

2013 Comet ISON: National Science Foundation Launches Comet ISON Photo Contest for Amateur Astronomers - [READ]

2013 Comet ISON: Hubble Space Telescope Captured an Intact 'Comet of the Century' - [READ]

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