It was a journey 5.5 million years in the making, but comet ISON’s trip appears to have been cut short by the Sun.<br /><br />Scientists, who have been tracking its path since last year, saw it pass 1.2 million kilometres from the Sun where it then disappeared without a trace. At that distance, the comet would have reached temperatures of 2,760 degrees Celsius, hot enough to vaporise it.<br /><br />If any fragments survived the close encounter, they would be visible to the naked eye within a week or two from Earth.
