A comet that gained an earthly following because of its bright tail visible from space was initially declared dead after essentially grazing the sun.

Now, there is a silver of hope that Comet ISON may have survived.

New images, basically faint smudges on a screen, being analysed on Friday show a streak of light moving away from the sun that some said could indicate it isn’t game over just yet.

“It certainly appears as if there is an object there that is emitting material,” said Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Basically a dirty snowball from the fringes of the solar system, scientists had pronounced Comet ISON dead when it came within 1.6 million kilometres of the sun on Thursday.

Some sky gazers speculated early on that it might become the comet of the century because of its brightness, although expectations dimmed over time.

But it wouldn’t be all bad news if the 4.5-billion-year-old space rock broke up into pieces, because some scientists say they might be able to study them and learn more about comets.

The European Space Agency, which had declared ISON’s death on Twitter late on Thursday, was backtracking early on Friday, saying the comet “continues to surprise”.

Comet ISON was first spotted by a Russian telescope in September last year, and became something of celestial flash in the pan this week for its vivid tail – visible by the naked eye – and compelling backstory of impending doom.

The comet was about a kilometre wide as it got within 1.6 million kilometres of the sun, which in space terms means grazing it.

NASA solar physicist Alex Young said on Thursday the comet had been expected to show up in images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft about 1700 GMT (0400 AEDT), but almost four hours later there was “no sign of it whatsoever”.

Images from other spacecraft showed a light streak continuing past the sun, but Young said that was most likely a trail of dust continuing in the comet’s trajectory.

However, instead of fading, that trail appeared to get brighter on Friday, suggesting that “at least some small fraction of ISON has remained in one piece”, US Navy solar researcher Karl Battams wrote on his blog.

He cautioned that even if there is a solid nucleus, it may not survive for long.

Made up of loosely packed ice and dirt, the space rock came from the Oort cloud, an area of comets and debris on the fringes of the solar system.