SOHO captures Comet Death Dive into Sun!

[orin stepanek]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIi5jpCiKL8

Yesterday (Aug. 15), the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) watched a comet meet its demise as the dirty snowball dove directly into the sun, according to Space Weather astronomer Tony Phillips.

In the video captured by SOHO, you can see a number of objects zooming around the sun, which is blocked by an opaque disk to reduce glare. Seemingly right on top of the sun is Venus, which is bright and easy to spot. Left of center and not quite as bright as Venus, you can also see Mars. Just about 10 seconds into the video, the sun-bound comet suddenly becomes obvious and easy to detect.

Staying on course, the comet continues to head directly for the sun, where it is charges through the sun's atmosphere and is ultimately destroyed (though, of course, you can't see that in the video). This comet is most likely a Kreutz sungrazer, according to Phillips.

Related: Gallery: Incredible Photos of Comet ISON

[Ann]

Thanks, Orin, that's fascinating!

It's interesting that the Sun didn't seem to experience the slightest hiccup as it swallowed the comet.

What's that bright star just "above" the Sun? The Sun is in Leo now, so could it by any chance have been Regulus?

Ann

EDIT: No, it wasn't Regulus, it was Venus.

Chelsea Gohd of Space.com wrote:

Seemingly right on top of the sun is Venus, which is bright and easy to spot. Left of center and not quite as bright as Venus, you can also see Mars.

Okay, I get it!

[orin stepanek]

I believe a while back (2016?) the Sun swallowed another Comet that was supposed to be a sun grazer! Let me check!
https://www.space.com/33651-comet-death ... video.html
Don't know ii ISON plunged for sure or just boiled dry!https://www.nature.com/news/seven-days- ... 13-1.14291