In recent months, the comet ISON was the center of attention not only of astronomers, amateur and professional, but also of the general public because it had been mentioned as a possible comet of the century for its great brightness. It was followed and photographed by instruments on the ground and in space, including the good old Hubble Space Telescope, especially yesterday, when it moved close to the Sun. It was the most critical moment and it seemed that ISON was destroyed by the Sun’s gravity but after a few hours at least some fragments came out.

Yesterday NASA’ STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) and SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) satellites were particularly used to keep an eye on the comet ISON’s trajectory. Unfortunately, at the perihelion, meaning at the point of closest approach to the Sun, it was hidden from our star so even space telescopes were unable to locate it. When the time came for the comet to reappear, nothing emerged.

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The inevitable conclusion was that the comet ISON was destroyed by the Sun’s gravity. Its flyby left a margin of uncertainty about its fate because it was impossible to estimate accurately the effects of the Sun on a celestial body made ​​of rock and ice. It really seemed that ISON was torn to pieces so from the scientific point of view it was a very interesting event but for common people the show was ruined.

When hopes were already lost, something reappeared, although initially it wasn’t clear what it was. After a while, it became clear that it wasn’t the whole comet but only a few fragments. ESA started to put on-line images taken by the LASCO-3 (Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph) instrument of its SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) satellite that show that those what seem to be pieces of the comet ISON .

It’s hard to say what will happen to the surviving pieces of the comet ISON. Astronomers will try to determine their size and density with the instruments available but they could vanish too breaking into fragments even smaller and invisible. A part of the necleus may have survived and even though it won’t be the comet of the century it remains a very interesting event.