COMET ISON

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Comet ISON is now two days away from a close encounter with the Sun, an encounter that it very well may not survive. On Thursday ISON will sweep around the Sun, clearing its roiling surface by as little as 800,000 miles. After Thanksgiving, one of three fates will have come to pass.

Copy the code below to embed this infographic on your site: As long as ISON survives on Nov. 28, early December should be

As astronomers who have been watching the comet know, however, the past few days -- and the next few days -- will not be the best ones to try to catch the comet.

You don't need NASA to tell you how to cook an egg. Mac and cheese? You can handle that too. But when it comes to knowing

In late November, Comet ISON moves its fastest as it flies from Virgo, through Libra and Scorpius, and then heads north into Ophiuchus.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural

Comet ISON (C/2012 S1), the much-anticipated visitor from the distant depths of the solar system, continues to brighten and this week should reach naked-eye visibility as seen from a dark sky, away from city lights.

The next few weeks will undoubtedly give us our best shot at ISON. To see it this week, you'll need to venture out in the early morning, around 4 a.m. local time, and look toward the constellation Leo.