Places where hot new stars are born and die - and sculpt their surroundings into odd shapes - in the dwarf galaxy orbiting our own Milky Way.

Now ISON cannot be seen from Earth, but it's coming into the field of view of a whole fleet of ESA and NASA space-based observatories.

Get the facts about comet ISON. The manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office shares the low-down on the stellar object's holiday travel plans.

The appearance of this "new star" stunned those who thought the heavens were constant and unchanging. At its brightest, the supernova rivaled Venus before fading from sight a year later.

"Improving the exploration of the magnetic field's function and recording space weather data more accurately allows us to draw conclusions for life on our planet." - Johanna Wanka

A monster gamma-ray burst - whose afterglow lasted months - may have come from the explosion of a giant star, say astronomers at the University of Copenhagen.

Observations of the powerful gamma-ray burst of April 2013 didn't match energy levels predicted by the standard models, say astronomers at Stanford University.

“Exceedingly rare triple system, seen when universe was 800 million years old, provides insights into the earliest stages of galaxy formation." - Richard Ellis

"We might witness a nice, long-tailed comet visible to the naked eye that will leave millions of people with fond memories for a lifetime, or maybe it will be a small comet for sky hunters using binoculars and a good map of its position. Or it might yet break up and vanish." - Alan MacRobert

The launch took place at approximately 8:15 p.m. (EST) on November 19, from the Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia.