Two amateur astronomers, graduate students from Karelia Artem Novichonok and Vitaly Nevsky from Vitebsk, discovered a new comet. This may be the brightest comet in the last decade.

      On September 21 Novichonok and Nevsky received an image of a space object from the ISON-Kislovodsk  observatory  in Kislovodsk. They reported the image to the Minor Planet Center, whose experts, in turn, put the object on the confirmation page of NEOCP as a new potential near-Earth asteroid.

      Cometary nature of the object was confirmed by several Russian and foreign observatories. The comet was awarded the index C/2012 S1 (ISON), its glow currently reaches the magnitude of 18.

      At the moment, the comet is close to Jupiter, and in about a year it will be going past the Sun. Then it will reach maximum brightness, unless it expires under the influence of solar heat.