Last week Comet Lovejoy flew into, then out of, the sun, and NASA astronaut Daniel Burbank had the best seat in the house. Burbank, who is currently the commander of the International Space Station, took over 100 photographs of Comet Lovejoy as it shot through space on Wednesday night.
Burbank said:
“It was (the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in space. And that’s saying an awful lot because every day is filled with amazing things.”
Space.com reports that at the time of the photographs, Comet Lovejoy was traveling about 240 miles above Tasmania. But at the time, Burbank wasn’t exactly sure what he was photographing.
Burbank said:
“I had no idea what it was; it was a long green glowing arc. It turns out that it ended up being a comet.”
Here’s the video of Comet Lovejoy from the International Space Station.
Last week Comet Lovejoy flew within 87,000 miles from the sun’s surface . Many astronomers predicted that the comet would be destroyed by the sun, but surprisingly, the comet emerged on the other side of the sun.
