Astronomers are crossing their fingers that recently-discovered
comet could put on a celestial show of the ages later this year.
If all goes right, Comet ISON could be so bright, it would rival
a full moon at night and could even be visible during daylight.
But that is a big "if". The comet was discovered in September by
Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok,
according to NASA. They gave the comet the acronymed-name of
their night-sky survey program, the International Scientific
Optical Network. Right now, the comet is near Jupiter but the
fact that it is visible to astronomers that far away indicates
it's a rather large comet, and it's trajectory indicates when
its orbit reaches the sun this autumn, it will graze the sun's
outer edges, giving it an extremely bright glow. Those two
factors are what are giving astronomers great hope it will put
on a dazzling display as the comet begins its return trip back
into outer space. Even better -- it's on a safe course that will
miss Earth, but will p