Comet ISON seen by NASA's SOHO

ISON made its closest approach to the Sun during the evening of  November 28, 2013, passing just 1.2 million kilometres from the Sun's visible surface. At first the comet was thought to have disintegrated during its fiery encounter, with just a remnant of its tail continuing along ISON's trajectory. But, the next day, it seemed clear that something had survived after all -- possibly a small chunk of ISON's nucleus, along with a lot of dust. This progressively faded as it edged towards SOHO's field of view on 30 November. Over the coming weeks scientists will be analysing the data collected during ISON's encounter with the Sun to decipher the nail-biting chain of events that took place.

Video Credit: NASA/SOHO
Explanation from: http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/2013_11_28/