Arcing
toward a fiery fate, this Sungrazer comet was recorded by the SOHO spacecraft's
Large Angle Spectrometric COronagraph (LASCO) on Dec. 23rd, 1996. LASCO
uses an occulting disk, partially visible at the lower right, to block out
the otherwise overwhelming solar disk allowing it to image the inner 5 million
miles of the relatively faint corona. The comet is seen as its coma enters
the bright equatorial solar wind region (oriented vertically). Spots and
blemishes on the image are background stars and camera streaks caused by
charged particles. |
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Positioned
in space to continuously observe the Sun, SOHO has detected 7 sungrazing
comets. Based on their orbits, they are believed to belong to a family of
comets created by successive break ups from a single large parent comet
which passed very near the sun in the twelfth century. The bright comet
of 1965, Ikeya-Seki, was also a member of the Sungrazer family, coming within
about 400,000 miles of the Sun's surface. Passing so close to the Sun, Sungrazers
are subjected to destructive tidal forces along with intense solar heat.
This comet, known as SOHO 6, did not survive. |
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