Comet Ison caught on film by Deep Impact craft

[Jazzy]

A comet likely to light up the skies later this year has been filmed from afar by the Deep Impact spacecraft.



Comet Ison was only discovered in September 2012 by Russian astronomers.



Its path will put it spectacularly close to the Sun in November and if it does not burn up entirely, could be the comet of the century.



It already has a 64,000km-long tail of dust and gas that will become visible to the naked eye later in the year - a trail scientists will study closely.



This appears to be this comet's first-ever journey into the inner Solar System and it is expected to pass much closer to the Sun than most comets, said Tony Farnham of the University of Maryland.



Thus it offers us a novel opportunity to see how the dust and gas frozen in this comet since the dawn of our Solar System will change and evolve as it is strongly heated during its first passage close to the Sun.

Time-lapse video of Comet Ison