ISON Comet Arriving in 2013 to Outshine the Moon

With the New Year just beginning, one thing sky watchers can look forward to in 2013 is the appearance of a comet that will dazzle with luminescence the expanse of the night sky and rival-or even outdo-Earth's moon.

The Comet ISON, which is due to appear next summer via small telescopes and binoculars, has traveled millions of years from the Oort cloud, which is a reservoir of trillions of chunks of rock and ice remaining after the creation of the planets.

Astronomer David Whitehouse writes in UK-based paper "The Independent" that ISON could be the "comet of the century."

"Comet Ison could draw millions out into the dark to witness what could be the brightest comet seen in many generations - brighter even than the full Moon," Whitehouse writes.

According to what astronomer Donald Yeomans, head of NASA's Near Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told Reuters, the comet is expected to journey within 1.2 million miles from the center of the sun on Nov. 28.

The comet was discovered in September by Russian stronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok using a telescope at the Kislovodsk Observatory in Russia as part of the global International Scientific Optical Network, or ISON, through with the comet was named after.

The network is a project that surveys the sky for comets and asteroids.

"The object was slow and had a unique movement. But we could not be certain that it was a comet because the scale of our images are quite small and the object was very compact," Novichonok wrote in a comets email list hosted by Yahoo.

The brightness of this particular comet is said to rival a similar comet that passed by Earth in 1680. The 17th Century shooting space rock was said to be so bright that its tail was visible even in daylight.

Another brightly shining comet, 2014 L4, or PanSTARRS, which was discovered last year and in March and April, could also be visible in 2013, according to Whitehouse.