If a comet disintegrates in space, free of external gravitational forces, then the pieces should stay on relatively the same path. If it is torn apart during a slingshot around the sun they will not. I don’t know what actually happened in this case but we will find out soon enough.
“If it is torn apart during a slingshot around the sun they will not.”
It will do what Shoemaker-levy 9 did, follow its orbit.
Yes there will be some spreading of debris.
But not enough to send anything our way.
It will be more than half an AU away from us.
The bits have not done a Comet Biela.
Biela split along its axis, throwing a piece off that drifted into a different but related orbit.
Ison did not do that.
Ison broke up in fashion similar to SL-9.
The pieces will continue on the same path as before, “climbing” away from the ecliptic.
Nothing magic about this at all.
And point of fact: Shoemaker-levy 9 broke up on a “slingshot” approach of Jupiter, in exactly the same way Ison broke up on approach to Sol.
At perijove in 1992 it crumbled, and the pieces followed the same orbit until impact in ‘94.
Ison broke up at perihelion, the pieces will follow the orbit of the parent body.