Great news : Comet ISON should survive!

A new study by Matthew Knight of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona and Kevin Walsh of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio predicts that sungrazing Comet ISON will probably survive its upcoming encounter with Old Sol and put on a dazzling display when it emerges from behind our local star next month.

There's no telling just how great a show ISON will put on. It could be anything from a conspicuous object in the sky to a can't miss celestial feature that will be visible in the daytime and by whose light one might read a newspaper at night.

Given the relative youth of the century, it probably will have no difficulty living up to its "Comet of the Century" billing. But it remains to be seen whether it will rival such spectacular comets of the late 20th Century as Hyakutake, Hale-Bopp, McNaught and Lovejoy.