Can comet Ison survive sun fly-past?
It’s crunch time for a comet from the fringes of the solar system as it hurtles toward a close encounter with the sizzling sun.
Comet Ison is expected to get closest to the sun at 6.37pm today.
At that point it will be only about one million miles (1.6 million kilometres) away from the sun’s surface.
Scientists say it probably won’t be visible from Earth except via a fleet of Nasa telescopes and spacecraft.
But if Ison survives – and it will be a few hours before that’s known – and returns past Earth, astronomers say it should be easily visible in the northern hemisphere early next month, just before sunrise and after sunset.
