Photos Show ISON Might Have Survived Encounter With Sun

Nov 30, 2013 09:01 AM EST | Matt Mercuro

Scientists believe part of Comet ISON might have survived an encounter with the sun, according to BBC News.

The giant comet, which was full of dust and ice, was originally pronounced dead when it didn't re-emerge from behind the sun. All that could be seen in space telescope images was a smudge, causing experts to believe its nucleus and tail were gone.

Recent pictures seem to indicate that they might have been wrong however.

"We've been following this comet for a year now and all the way it has been surprising us and confusing us," said astrophysicist Karl Battams, according to BBC.

Astronomers admitted on Nov. 29 being surprised and happy, but warn stargazers that anything is possible within the next day or so.

Over the weekend ISON could brighten more or fizzle out.

"It's just typical that right at the end, when we said, 'yes, it has faded out, it's died, we've lost it in the Sun', that a couple of hours later it should pop right back up again," Battams said.

The European Space Agency (ESA) were one of the first organizations to say ISON was gone, and has had to "re-assess" its proclamation since a number of experts believe a small part of the nucleus is still intact, according to BBC.

No one has been willing to guess how much of the comet is left however.

ISON has been one of the most watched comets ever, and if it did survive the encounter, whatever happens next could be huge.

"We would like people to give us a couple of days, just to look at more images as they come from the spacecraft, and that will allow us to assess the brightness of the object that we're seeing now, and how that brightness changes," said Battams. "That will give us an idea of maybe what the object is composed of and what it might do in the coming days and weeks."

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