It was originally hoped that the comet would be visible to the naked eye on Friday and Saturday, but now it is unclear even if sky gazers will be able to see it with binoculars, says the Finnish Astronomical Association Ursa. At best, ISON would have been a magnificent light phenomenon, which should have been easily seen by Earthly residents.
The comet was tracked on its journey close to the sun, until it disappeared from view. Its failure to reemerge prompted experts to speculate that it had burned up in the solar corona. Later, to the surprise of astronomists, the nucleus of the comet did reemerge, although the bypass had by then lost much of its lustre.
President of Ursa's Mikkeli branch, Aki Taavitsainen, said that it is not yet possible to say whether the ISON comet is the greatest this century.
"The most recent data show that some kind of a piece has emerged from behind the Sun and it's gaining in brightness and redeveloping a tail. It remains to be seen what it will be," says Taavitsainen, who has followed ISON since September 2012, when the comet's discovery was published.
In addition to at least somewhat losing its tail, ISON also lost bits and pieces of its core, which will continue to disintegrate, researchers speculate. While it may not yield as much entertainment value, it is predicted that scientist can still learn a lot from the comet’s solar fly by.
