Absolutely Spectacular Photos of Comet Lovejoy from the Space Station

[/caption] Check out this absolutely stunning collection of new Comet Lovejoy photos taken by

space

station commander

Dan Burbank

just before the Christmas holidays on Dec. 22, 2011 - what an amazing

holiday treat

, the Chrtistmas Comet!

Burbank shot these exquisitely detailed nighttime images showing the comet near the Earth's horizon and framed with a gorgeously rich star field, all while floating aboard the International Space Station

(ISS)

some 400 kilometers (250 miles) above all of us - and absent any atmospheric interferences and distortions !

Burbank is a

NASA

astronaut and commander of ISS Expedition 30.

The comet has put on a spectacular show for observers in the Earth's southern hemisphere despite prognostications of a fiery death as it careened through the suns corona during perihelion on Dec. 16 at a distance of 140,000 kilometers (87,000 mi).

Astronaut

Burbank launched

to the ISS on Nov. 13 along with Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin aboard the Soyuz TMA-22 capsule from the Baikonur Cosmosdrome. The trio

docked

on Nov. 16 for a more than 4 month stay.

Comet Lovejoy was only

discovered

on 27 November 2011, by Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy and classified as a Kreutz sungrazer. It has put on an unexpected and magnificent

Christmas Comet holiday

show.

Burbank first caught an accidental glimpse of Comet Lovejoy on Dec. 21 and snapped an initial set of beautiful comet photos from the Cupola observation dome aboard the ISS.

And - there's still time to create an

Asteroid Vesta

themed winter holiday greeting card,

here

[caption id="attachment_92124" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Prelaunch photo of Soyuz-TMA-22/Expedition 29/30 crew - NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin Credit: Roscosmos"]

[/caption]