Lovejoy’s fiery farewell

Comet Lovejoy, seen here by the SOHO satellite, is on a final plunge towards the Sun. Later today it will get too close (perhaps as little as 140,000 km from the solar surface) and be destroyed by the extreme temperatures. The poor thing never had a chance of reaching its destination before it disintegrated; a ball of dirty ice couldn’t even cope with the heat of my kitchen! Oh, and before you complain that there’s no way I’d find a comet in my house, all I’d have to do is invite sometime-poster-on-this-blog Stuart round and provide him with some liquid nitrogen.

UPDATE: IT SURVIVED!! The Solar Dynamics Observatory saw it fly away:

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