Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy has officially been credited with the discovery of a sunwards bound comet now officially known as C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy). It was discovered photographically (using a 8 inch Schmitt-cassigrain telescope and CCD camera) and is currently approximately 13th magnitude. This means it is significantly fainter than what you can see with the unaided eye.
The discovery is causing significant excitement in astronomy circles however as C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) belongs to the Kreutz family of comets. Essentially, these are comets with an orbit that takes them so close to the Sun (140,000 kilometers in the case of this comet) that they are vaporized by the Sun. Apparently, the last Sun grazer discovered visually was back in 1970, highlighting Terrys achievement.
Part of the excitement being generated in the astronomy community by this comet is for historical reasons. In the past, there have been a couple of rare examples where Sun grazing comets have been so bright they were visible to the eye during the day! At this stage, it is not expected that C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) will do this. At best, we will be able to follow its demise courtesy of the joint NASA/ESA SOHO spacecraft website. The orbit is still very preliminary for the comet (with discovery only occurring at the end of November) but closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is expected to occur at 10 am AEST (11 am AEDT) on 16 December 2011.
