A small comet survived what astronomers expected to be a sure death when it danced uncomfortably close to the sun.

    Comet Lovejoy, which was only discovered a couple of weeks ago, was supposed to melt Thursday night when it came close to where temperatures hit several million degrees. Astronomers had tracked 2,000 other sun-grazing comets which made the same suicidal* trip. None had ever survived.

    But astronomers watching live with NASA telescopes first saw the sun’s corona wiggle* as Lovejoy went close to the sun. They were then shocked when a bright spot emerged on the sun’s other side. Lovejoy lived.

    Lovejoy didn’t exactly come out of its hellish adventure unscathed*. Only 10 percent of the comet — which was probably millions of tons — survived the encounter, said W. Dean Pesnell, project scientist for NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which tracked Lovejoy’s death-defying plunge*.

    And the comet lost something pretty important: its tail.

    “It looks like the tail broke off and is stuck” in the sun’s magnetic field*, Pesnell said.

    Comets circle the sun and sometimes get too close. For a small object often described as a dirty snowball comprised of* ice and dust, that brush with the sun should have been fatal.

    The frozen comet was evaporating* as it made the trip toward the sun, “just like you’re sweating on a hot day,” Pesnell said.

      (SD-Agencies)