Comet ISON Joins in Fourth of July Celebrations [VIDEO]

The universe was anxious to show off fireworks of its own this Independence Day in the form of Comet ISON as it continues to hurtle toward the Sun at 48,000 mph.

Its swift motion was caught in a time-lapse movie made from a sequence of pictures taken May 8 by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope over a 43-minute period, though the images have been compressed into just five seconds during which time the comet travels 34,000 miles.

Unlike a firework, however, the comet is not combusting. The tail is really a streamer of gas and dust bleeding off the icy nucleus. The pressure of the solar wind is what sweeps the material into a tail, similar to a breeze blowing a windsock.

At the time the images were taken, the comet was 408 million miles from Earth, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and is scheduled to enter the Sun's atmosphere this November, at which point the outcome is uncertain. One hypothesis is that the million-degree temperatures of the corona will be the end of the ball of ice and dust. Another states that ISON will emerge intact after flying by the Sun.

What scientists do know, however, is that as the comet warms as it moves toward the Sun, its rate of sublimation - the process by which solid matter transitions directly into gas - will increase. As a result, the comet will get brighter and its tail will grow longer. As this happens, the comet is predicted to be visible with the naked-eye.

Then, on Nov. 28, ISON will reach its closest point with the Sun's surface at a total of 80,000 miles.

First discovered last fall, some have taken to calling ISON the "comet of the century."

Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program isn't quite convinced, however.

"I'm old enough to remember the last 'Comet of the Century,'" he said in reference to a comet that, in 1973, looked as though it was going to put on a good show, much like ISON.

"It fizzled," Yeomans said, adding that comets are "notoriously unpredictable."

Ultimately, he said, "Comet ISON has the potential to live up to the hype, but it also has the potential to do nothing."