Comet Lovejoy's 'One Night Encounter' with the Horizon (PHOTOS + VIDEOS)

Here a surprising 'free gift' from the sky above, ahead of Christmas - Comet Lovejoy was unexpectedly spotted falling into the horizon vertically. International Space Station (ISS) Commander Dan Burbank, who was photographing lightning storm over the Pacific Ocean, had captured this surprising and fantastic scene from the orbiting station on Wednesday.

Comet Lovejoy is a periodic comet, which was discovered by amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy. This comet has already astonished astronomers when it had a close call last week - it passed by the blazing Sun in a handshaking distance (in cosmic terms) - only 200,000 kilometers. The comet just sported a long tail as the ice inside the Comet got vaporized by heat but later it revived as a new one.

And this time, 'Comet Lovejoy' showed what a falling star can do. That is falling completely vertically to the the horizon.

Burbank described the sight as the most amazing thing he has ever seen in space.

Unfortunately, this awe-inspiring scene could be seen by naked eyes by the people in the Southern Hemisphere i.e., only those living in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. But you can enjoy the video clip of the impressive nocturnal encounter between the comet and the horizon.

One interesting thing to mull about here is: Not from astronomical point of view, but from astrological point of view, probably this is the sign of a falling big star. To the tech world, it means Steve Jobs while to the North Korean, it could mean Kim Jung-il. Anyways, this was spotted when two big stars of the world (for better or for worse) faded away.

Check out the video clips below of Comet Lovejoy's journey :

[1] Comet Lovejoy survives a close encounter with the Sun and lives to fly another day

2) Comet Lovejoy's encounter with the horizon