Previous reports of Comet ISON's death may have been somewhat exaggerated, but this time it looks like the real thing.

Remnants of the object once touted as the "comet of the century" passed through the viewing field of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory in the wake of Thursday's close encounter with the sun — and as it passed, the bright spot that survived grew dimmer and dimmer.

"I do think that something emerged from the sun, but probably a very small nucleus or 'rubble pile.' and I fear that may have now dissolved," Karl Battams, an astrophysicist at the Naval Research Laboratory who has been studying ISON for months, wrote Saturday in a Twitter update.

Is it gone, or isn't it gone? To read more, click here.