Comet ISON may have survived its close encounter with the sun as material from the comet reappeared late evening November 28, despite not being seen in any telescopic observations made that day.

Comet ISON, dubbed the comet of the century, continued to display surprising behavior and may have survived its close encounter with the sun, contrary to previous speculations. Material from the comet resurfaced on the other side of the sun late evening on November 28, according to a NASA press statement. Though telescopic observations made earlier were not able to detect any signs of the comet and the European Space Agency's experts confirmed the comet's death on Twitter, the new statement reveals that the comet has been spotted.

The comet was detected by European Space Agency and NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory in the form of a "Streak of bright material streaming away from the sun." The big question that remains unanswered is whether this streak of bright material is only debris or a part of the comet actually survived the encounter. A late-night analysis from scientists with NASA's Comet ISON Observing Campaign suggests that there may be at least a small nucleus intact.

All observations made of the comet showed that it brightened and dimmed in unexpected ways, especially in days when it came closer to the sun. Researchers found that the change in brightness may be because of materials boiling in the comet. And since different materials boil at different temperatures, the brightness of the comet varies from time to time. An analysis on this pattern can better help researchers understand the composition of ISON, which contains materials dating back to the formation of the solar system, more than 4.5 billion years ago.

"I really don't think there's a whole lot left," said Karl Battams, an astrophysicist at the Naval Research Laboratory who has spent a week observing ISON at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, according to NY Daily News. "I'm very disappointed for the public, because we're not going to see this beautiful object in the Northern Hemisphere skies."

The comet, which was discovered in September 2012 by the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON), near Kislovodsk, Russia, was believed to be a pristine cometary nucleus that had fallen from the hypothetical Oort Cloud, a reservoir of icy fragments left over from the birth of the solar system. It is reckoned that this "shell" of proto-comets is located around 1 light-year away from the sun.