Comet ISON, which was previously thought to be dead, but later found alive, is now fading away.
On Thursday, November 28, Comet ISON passed by the sun at a distance of 730,000 miles away and then disappeared. Astronomers thought that the comet disintegrated after it came near to the Sun.
However, astronomers report that just after a few hours of passing, the comet reappeared. Scientists, with the help of telescopes, observed a bright spot at the head of the comet, which indicated that a part of the icy nucleus had survived. The revival of the Comet ISON was short-lived and the comet faded again over the weekend.
"I think for the most part it's dead," said C. Alex Young, the associate director for science in the heliophysics division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The folks are finally pretty confident that's the case."
Astronomers say that by Sunday, December 1, the light from the comet was so dim that its debris will not be visible to the naked eye when it passes near the Earth this month. However, scientists suggest that pre-dawn-skies of early December will be the best chance for photographers with binoculars to capture views of the ISON.
"I really don't think there's a whole lot left," said Karl Battams, an astrophysicist at the Naval Research Laboratory who has spent a week observing ISON at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. "I'm very disappointed for the public, because we're not going to see this beautiful object in the Northern Hemisphere skies."
Comet ISON was discovered on September 21, 2012 by two Russian scientists and has also been dubbed the "Comet of the Century." Several scientists believed that the comet may shine brighter than the Moon but it never lived up to the expectations. Comet ISON is said to have originated from the Oort cloud, a region of icy bodies that are about a light year from the Sun.
Comets from the Oort cloud that pass the Earth are supposed to be very rare and they give scientists a chance to study these icy objects to get more details regarding the outer solar system.
