Oort cloud tosses astronomers a cometary curveball

ISON delivers debris from the dawn of the solar system

GOING STREAKING  The Hubble Space Telescope has been taking images of ISON throughout 2013 to track how the comet changes as it approaches the sun.

NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA/Hubble Heritage

Pretty much every major telescope in the world is gearing up to witness a meeting that has been scheduled since long before humans walked the Earth.