S Comet of the Century: A Horizon Special

Comet ISON could well be the brightest and most spectacular comet for a generation. It should appear above the eastern horizon from December 2013 as a glorious streak across the sky. ISON has been travelling towards the sun for ten thousand years and will make only one orbit through its corona before disappearing off into the outer solar system.

But as well as providing a great spectacle, ISON's tail of vapourised gas and water, hundreds of millions of kilometres long, will give insights into some of the greatest mysteries of science; it will help explain the origins of the solar system, whether earth's water was delivered on comets and even whether we are alone in the universe.

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