When the Commander of the International Space Station says he just saw “the most amazing thing I have ever seen in space,” you know you’re in for something incredible. We’ve never seen a view of a comet like this.
Yesterday International Space Station Commander Dan Burbank captured spectacular imagery of Comet Lovejoy, as seen from about 385km above the Earth’s horizon. The clip of him talking about it is from an interview he did with WDIV-TV in Detroit. When you see someone who’s constantly seeing wondrous things filled with awe, there’s something very special about it.
Lovejoy, which is primarily made of ice and dirt, survived a very close call with the sun last week. It looked to be on a collision course and didn’t seem to have a snowball’s chance in hell. Luckily it whizzed right by the star of pheobus, and aside from a little bit of melt it wasn’t much worse for wear. We’re so glad, or we wouldn’t have these incredible images to drool over this week. You can see more over at NASA. [NASA via Mike Elgan]
Image Credit: NASA