The Knoxville News Sentinel spoke with Sean Lindsay, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, about Comet ISON. Some astronomers have hyped Comet ISON as the “comet of the century,” but whether the hurtling ball of ice and dirt will earn its title depends largely on surviving today’s trip around the sun. “Even if it doesn’t survive, while it’s disappointing for public events, it’s really important to science, being able to backtrack and find out what happened,” Lindsay said. “It gives us a lot of information, and amazing science is going to come out of this no matter what.”