This week, NHK will air footage of the comet ISON taken by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Koichi Wakata, an astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shot the footage with a supersensitive 4K camera system on November 23, as the space station was hovering some 420 km above Ontario, Canada. According to the Japanese broadcaster, “from there, astronaut Wakata had a box seat, giving him a clear view without atmospheric fluctuations of comet ISON rising from its tail.”
NHK plans to air the footage as well as other footage taken from the ISS on December 4 during a live broadcast airing in the ‘NHK Special’ slot, on the network’s terrestrial channel. Experts had originally thought that the comet would pass close to Earth in early December.
The comet, dubbed “The Comet of the Century” in science circles, is thought to have broken up and evaporated on November 29.