Comet Ison, which was touted as the potential Comet of the Century, was pronounced dead, leaving stargazers and scientists heartbroken. The young comet was only a year old.

Comet ISON was finally pronounced dead so soon, oh too soon, after its close encounter with sun on Thanksgiving.

Comet Ison's career was meteoric, as seen in pictures taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. The huge flying block of ice was stretched and pulled by the sun's powerful gravity. The comet of the century was also hit with solar radiation. Then Comet Ison just fell apart.

At a meeting, scientists at the American Geophysical Union said comet Ison broke apart on Thanksgiving after coming close to the sun.

Comet ISON was called the "comet of the century." But, like Icarus in Greek mythology, it flew too close to the sun, within 730,000 miles of the sun to be exact. Comet ISON was less than a mile wide as it headed toward the sun. The comet was composed of 2 billion tons of ice and dust.

Naval Research Lab astronomer Karl Battams, who headed the observing campaign for the comet, said "At this point it seems like there is nothing left. Sorry, everyone, Comet ISON is dead. But its memory will live on." Battams said Comet ISON was probably smaller than originally estimated. It was about half a mile wide. Battams called watching it in those final hours "a process of heartbreak."

Last year, Comet Lovejoy survived its close encounter with the sun.

Remnants from Comet ISON were approaching the viewing field for the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory's LASCO C3 ultraviolet detector. Glare from the sun blocked it from view before it re-emerged. As remnants the "comet of the century" passed the observatory, it grew dimmer and dimmer.

In his blog, Battams wrote "Over the past year, we've amassed what we believe to be the largest single cometary dataset in history from one of - if not the most - successful coordinated observing campaigns in history. That data is going to tell us a lot, but is going to take a seriously long time to sort through. We've had a crazy year, an even crazier past few months, and a truly insane couple of days. But everything we get out of this will make it more than worth it, and for me it's just a privilege to have played a part in this unprecedented and extraordinary event."