For those following Comet ISON (or C/2012-S1, named for the ISON Observatory in Russia, where it was discovered, also called Comet Nevski–Novichonok after the comrades who first spotted it), ISON reached perihelion Thursday, disappearing behind the Sun for a few hours.
Its proximity to the Sun was so close — about 12% of the Earth-Sun distance — that astronomers were writing its obituary yesterday when a fragment of the object emerged from behind the Sun several hours later, seeming to be significantly smaller with a bunch of it having been cooked off.