Back in July, we (along with everyone else who enjoys a little sky-gazing) got excited when we heard that an especially fizzy comet “the size of a small mountain” might be passing by earth on Thanksgiving. It was going to be the “comet of the century,” and Johns Hopkins astronomers were hard at work determining what, exactly it was made out of. Well, some of us went outside last night and looked — and saw a regular old sky, no soda pop comet to be seen.
By all accounts, Comet ISON, as it’s known in astronomy circles, failed to make an appearance last night. “It does seem like Comet ISON probably hasn’t survived this journey,” U.S. Navy solar researcher Karl Battams said, according to the Huffington Post. Astronomers are thinking that ISON probably got within 1 million miles from the sun, which was close enough to ignite it.
Sorry, astronomers! Maybe next time. Or maybe not…. “[Comets this size passing this close to us] are pretty rare,” said NASA solar physicist Alex Young. “So we might not see one maybe even in our lifetime.”
