Comet Lovejoy Survives Fiery Plunge Through Sun, NASA Says

"A newfound comet defied long odds on Thursday (Dec. 15), surviving a suicidal dive through the sun's hellishly hot atmosphere", according to NASA scientists.

Comet Lovejoy swam through the sun's corona at about 7 p.m. EST , and came as near as 87,000 miles of the sun's surface Corona, the extended outer atmosphere of the Sun, has a temperature of millions of degrees. Temperatures in the corona can reach 2 million degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 million degrees Celsius), so most researchers expected the small icy body to get finished off completely.

But Lovejoy proved to be stronger than expected. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) video showed the "icy object emerging from behind the sun and zipping back off into space."