A NASA handout image, taken December 15, 2011, shows the Comet Lovejoy leaving the sun's corona which is several million degrees. Astronomers had tracked 2000 other sun-grazing comets make the same suicidal trip. None had ever survived. Picture: AP Source: AP
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A SMALL comet has survived what astronomers figured would be a sure death when it danced uncomfortably close to the broiling sun.
Comet Lovejoy was only discovered a couple of weeks ago. It was supposed to melt as it came so close to the sun on Thursday that the temperatures would hit several million degrees.
But astronomers watching live with NASA telescopes were shocked when a bright spot emerged on the sun's other side. Lovejoy lived.
The comet came within 121,000 km of the sun. For a small object often described as a dirty snowball, that brush with the sun should have been fatal.
Astronomers say it probably was not deadly because the comet was larger than they thought.
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