This busy night time panorama was photographed by one of the Expedition 30 crew members from the International Space Station on Dec. 26, 2011.
This photo comes from a time-lapse sequence taken by Gabriel Brammer from ESO just two days ago on 22 December 2011. Gabriel was finishing his night shift as support astronomer at the Paranal Observatory when the comet rose over the horizon just before dawn.
Comet Lovejoy is visible near Earth’s horizon in this nighttime image photographed by NASA astronaut Dan Burbank, Expedition 30 commander, onboard the International Space Station on Dec. 21, 2011.
European Southern Observatory optician Guillaume Blanchard captured this marvellous wide-angle photo of Comet Lovejoy on 22 December 2011 as it appeared over Paranal Observatory in Chile.
International Space Station Commander Dan Burbank captured spectacular imagery of Comet Lovejoy from about 240 miles above the Earth’s horizon on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011.
This beautiful dawn photo of Comet Lovejoy over Santiago de Chile was taken by ESO Photo Ambassador Yuri Beletsky on 22 December 2011 at 05:00 in the morning.
Comet Lovejoy skimmed across the Sun's edge about 140,000 km above the surface late Dec. 15 and early Dec. 16, 2011, furiously brightening and vaporizing as it approached the Sun. This images shows the comet during that time as seen by the SOHO spacecraft.
Comet Lovejoy skimmed across the Sun's edge about 140,000 km above the surface late Dec. 15, 2011, furiously vaporizing as it approached the stellar surface and later emerged from the other side. On approach (above), the comet's tail waggled as it interacted with the magnetic field of the Sun's atmosphere.
Comet Lovejoy is visible near Earth’s horizon in this nighttime image photographed by NASA astronaut Dan Burbank, Expedition 30 commander, onboard the International Space Station on Dec. 21, 2011.
Comet Lovejoy skimmed across the Sun's edge about 140,000 km above the surface late Dec. 15, 2011, furiously vaporizing as it approached the stellar surface and later emerged from the other side. This image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the comet after the encounter.
Comet Lovejoy is visible near Earth’s horizon in this nighttime image photographed by NASA astronaut Dan Burbank, Expedition 30 commander, onboard the International Space Station on Dec. 21, 2011.
Comet Lovejoy is visible near Earth’s horizon in this nighttime image photographed by NASA astronaut Dan Burbank, Expedition 30 commander, onboard the International Space Station on Dec. 21, 2011.
Comet Lovejoy emerged from behind the sun, as seen by the tail and head marked in this SOHO image on Dec. 16, 2011.
Comet Lovejoy is visible near Earth’s horizon in this nighttime image photographed by NASA astronaut Dan Burbank, Expedition 30 commander, onboard the International Space Station on Dec. 21, 2011.
Comet Lovejoy hurtled towards the sun on December 15, 2011, as seen by the SOHO spacecraft.
This image, taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows Comet Lovejoy diving through the sun's atmosphere on Dec. 15, 2011. Lovejoy's tail is visible as a faint diagonal smudge to the left of the sun, toward the bottom of the image. The tail points from lower left to upper right.
omet Lovejoy in SOHO/LASCO C3
This image, taken by the NASA/ESA SOHO spacecraft, shows Comet Lovejoy just 90 minutes or so before its closest approach to the sun on Dec. 15, 2011.
SoHo and STEREO spacecraft continue to watch Comet Lovejoy as it moves closer to the Sun and brightens. This still shows the comet headed towards the Sun, December 15, 2011.
Observations from NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft show the sungrazing comet Lovejoy as it approaches the sun in December 2011.
Comet Lovejoy is the bright streak at the bottom of this image, taken by SOHO’s Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) C3 instrument. SOHO's LASCO instrument is a coronagraph. It blocks out the light from the Sun's disc, creating an artificial eclipse. With the central glare removed, fainter objects closer to the Sun can be seen clearly by the instrument at 0830 GMT Dec. 15, 2011
This infrared image, photographed by an Expedition 30 crew member aboard the International Space Station in Earth orbit on Dec. 25, 2011, features Comet Lovejoy in a star-filled sky.
Scientists with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory mission constructed this model of the sun (yellow sphere) to illustrate the path of comet Lovejoy, C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy), during its plunge through the sun's corona on Dec. 15, 2011. The comet's path as seen from Earth is shown as the blue wire, with arrows noting the direction of travel.
This infrared image features Comet Lovejoy and was photographed about 240 miles above Earth from the International Space Station.
This plot released by scientists with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory mission shows the position of the comet Lovejoy - C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) - as it will appear at certain times (in GMT) overnight between Dec. 15 and 16, when the comet will plunge through the outer atmosphere of the sun.
Data from NASA's STEREO spacecraft show the sungrazing comet Lovejoy in relation to background stars on Dec. 11, 2011.
Almost a week after first sighting in the night sky, Comet Lovejoy is visible to the six astronauts and cosmonauts currently aboard the International Space Station.
This series of images shows comet C/2011 W3 Lovejoy as it appeared to a remote controlled observatory in Malargue, Argentina on the mornings of Dec. 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11 in 2011, just days before it was set to fly through the sun's outer atmosphere. This image was taken by a skywatching team of astronomers that includes: Jakub Cerny, Jan Ebr, Martin Jelinek, Petr Kubanek, Michael Prouza, Michal Ringes.
STEREO will also be observing the comet from its positions on each side of the Sun. This is the view that the Ahead and Behind spacecraft will have.
This model of the sun created by scientists with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the path of comet Lovejoy , C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy), as it would have appeared from Earth in July 2011. The blue line denotes the path of the comet, with arrows showing its direction of travel.
This is the basic trajectory of Comet Lovejoy that will be seen by SOHO and SDO
The sungrazing comet Lovejoy entered the field of view of NASA's SOHO satellite's LASCO C3 camera on Dec. 14, 2011. The comet is visible as the bright streak on the bottom.
Amateur astronomers Ernesto Guido, Giovanni Sostero and Nick Howes caught these views of comet C/2011 W3 Lovejoy on Dec. 4, 2011, using the robotic GRAS Observatory telescope in Australia. The image was taken as the comet neared the sun for an expected Dec. 15/16 pass through the solar corona.
NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft captured this view of the Kruetz family comet nearing its fiery fate. The comet is the size of two football fields and will become very bright as it nears the sun's surface on December 15th or 16th.
