A comet many people thought would be destroyed when it brushed by the Sun on 16 December, Comet Lovejoy has provided a memorable show for observers in the southern hemisphere. So much so, that it has already been called the great Christmas comet of 2011.
Discovered by the Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy on 27th November, the comet sprouted a bright tail as it plunged towards perihelion and into the sights of five different solar-observation spacecraft. As the comet's icy core raced in a tight arc around the Sun, it appeared to leave its tail suspended in the Sun's atmosphere, only for a spectacular new one to develop as Comet Lovejoy began to pull away from the Sun over the following days.
And what a tail. Southern observers first glimpsed it as a searchlight beam reaching up into the dawn twilight. Nasa astronaut Dan Burbank, above the Earth's atmosphere in his role as commander of the International Space Station, may have had a grandstand view, but before long ground-based observers were reporting as much as 30° of tail.
It was fading by Christmas and by the New Year it was less intense than the Milky Way but up to 45° long. The comet is still drawing nearer and passes the Earth at a range of 75 million km on Saturday, 7th January, as it sweeps within 2° of the south celestial pole. Sadly, observers in Britain have no chance of seeing it. Calculations suggest, though, that it may return in 600 years or so.