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NASA’s awesome GIF shows comets ISON and Encke in a race

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NASA spotted Comet ISON coming on strong on Thursday. An awesome set of images shows Comet Encke, its tail wriggling, along with Mercury and Earth. Then ISON enters the field. It looks like a comet race.

It’s evidence, the space agency says, that ISON is still intact and hasn’t splintered as it approaches the sun. A camera on NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory captured the action Thursday. Watch the tails of the comets below. Solar wind, the particles that stream outward from the sun at 1 million miles per hour, make the comets’ tails move.

ISON’s wings | Encke creates SoCal fireball | ISON visible to naked eye

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Comets move me: @AmyTheHub

Karl Battams/NASA/STEREO/CIOC

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