We barely knew thee
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/11/29/3901668.htm
After a journey of over five million years, from beyond our solar system, Comet ISON is no more, having been destroyed as it ventured like Icarus too close to the Sun.
Early this morning Australian time (18:37 GMT Thursday 28 November) the so called “comet of the century” reached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun.
It was ripped apart by the Sun’s powerful gravitational and tidal forces as it flew just 1.2 million kilometres above the solar surface.
Astronomers using a flotilla of space based telescopes to watch the event began reporting the fatal flight almost immediately.
Coronagraph images taken by the NASA/ESA SOHO spacecraft, which studies the Sun continuously, show the comet disintegrating.
As it made its closest approach to the Sun, ISON was travelling at over 350 kilometres per second,” says Dr Simon O’Toole from the Australian Astronomical Observatory.
“As it flew through the Sun’s atmosphere, the comet would have reached temperatures of over 2800°C. That’s hot enough to vaporise any remaining volatile ices inside the comet and also the dust and rock inclusions.”
