The SDO website has returned to service.
A Russian observatory is announcing the discovery of the a new sun-grazing comet, this time out near Jupiter. Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) will approach close to the Sun in November 2013, possibly as close as 0.012 AU (about 2 Rsun above the surface). It may become visible to the naked eye as well.
Comets become visible because they outgas water and other molecules, which reflect sunlight. The further from the Sun the comet becomes visible the bigger the comet usually is. Let's hope that we can get some nice data from SDO during the perihelion passage of Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON).
