The European Space Agency had declared the death of sungrazer Comet Ison Nov. 28.

The anticipated "Comet of the Century" did not survive its encounter with the sun at Thanksgiving Day. It disappeared behind the giant ball of fire and only its debris emerged.

"Astronomers continued to search for the object," BBC News' reported. "But it eventually became clear that the much vaunted Comet of the Century had gone out with a whimper."

Comet Ison began its journey from the Oort cloud for at least a million years ago. It was in September 2012 when it was first spotted by Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Astyom Novichonok. From January to March 2013, NASA's Swift mission observed the icy object and found that it was shedding about 112, 000 pounds of dust and 130 pounds of water every minute.

The nucleus of the comet appears to be approximately 3 to 4 miles in diameter, its corona about 3, 100 miles across and its tail to be more than 57, 000 miles in length. It was believed to be travelling at about 900, 000 miles per hour. If it was able to survive, it was anticipated to have a huge, impressively long tail.

The ball of ice and dust was hoped to light the night sky for weeks and was watched closely by scientists. But, as it came near the sun, it failed brighten the way comets do. This had dampened the hope of scientists that the comet would survive its encounter with the sun.

Comet Ison was subjected to the strong gravity of the sun and its temperature of over 2,000 C. At the time that it was supposed to re-emerge from the sun, NASA's Solar Dynamics Laboratiry filed to detect a clear sign of the comet's nucleus.