Here's another amazing video of Comet Lovejoy taken from the International Space Station. The images were captured by NASA astronaut Daniel Burbank, who is currently commander of the International Space Station.

"Two nights ago I probably saw the most amazing thing I've ever seen in space, and that's saying an awful lot because every day is filled with amazing things," said Burbank. "We were flying over Tasmania, we'd just seen the storms in the South Pacific over the Philippines, it was nighttime, thunderstorms lighting up the entire sky. Then just before the sun came up, the Earth's limb was lit up as a thin sliver of blue and purple and then there was this long, green arc that extended probably 10 degrees or so from the horizon."

The comet's close encounter with the sun has been recorded five other spacecraft including NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, Europe's Proba2 microsatellite and the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

The comet was discovered on Dec. 2 and named after amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy of Australia. The comet was a member of the Kreutz family of comets, which are fragments of a single giant comet that broke apart in the 12th century.

Lovejoy is at least 10 times larger than the usual Kreutz comets and was discovered on its journey to the sun. Many astronomers thought the comet would fall to its death in the sun but it narrowly avoided collision by about 200,000 kilometers, leaving it with a long tail.

Terrestrial observers will be able to catch the comet over the next few days. Australian observers will have to wake up early to catch the comet. Lovejoy will be easily visible just before the sun rises around 5 a.m. The sunrise gives the comet's tail a yellow hue, but this will fade as the comet moves further away from the sun. Observers who miss Comet Lovejoy will have to wait until January to see another comet. Comet McNaught will be visible in the sky but only through a small telescope.