Comet ISON On Course For Thanksgiving Rendezvous With Sun; Will the 'Comet of the Century' Survive?

Comet ISON has not broken apart just yet and should show Earth its light show on Thanksgiving Day as it makes its closest approach to the sun at less than 700,000 miles from the surface.

According to Space.com, NASA officials said the comet will come closest to the sun at 1:38 p.m. EST. The main question with ISON is whether or not it will survive this encounter. If it does, ISON will whip around the sun and the gravitational pull will propel the comet past Earth once again.

Scientists have been tracking ISON for more than a year, as it is one of the closest-to-Earth comets observed in recent memory. The gravitational pull of the sun is already causing the comet to deteriorate some and when ISON is at its closest, it may be completely disintegrated.

Still, NASA and scientists will be looking forward to viewing the comet they have been tracking for a year now.

"It's a wonderful holiday roast for all the scientists," NASA scientist Michelle Thaller told Space.com of the comet's Thanksgiving flyby. "While many people will be roasting their turkeys, the sun will be roasting this comet."

Carey Lisse, a senior research scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, said while there is a chance ISON survives the encounter, it is not quite a good one.

"This comet has given us quite a ride," Lisse, said. "It's hard to predict what's going on now."

The Johns Hopkins scientist gave the comet a 40 percent chance of surviving the solar encounter. If it does, ISON may be billed as the "comet of the century" for what promises to be a spectacular light show.

According to Computer World, NASA will be capturing images of ISON during its approach and flyby and will be sharing them on their website.

"The reason we study Comet ISON to begin with is because it's a relic," said Lisse. "It's a dinosaur bone of solar system formation. You need comets in order to build the planets. This comet has been in a deep freeze half way to the next star for the last four and a half billion years. It's just been coming in over the last few millions years and possibly even started around the dawn of man."