Comet disintegrates as it dives into the Sun

A new sun-diving comet appeared in LASCO C3 coronagraph imagery at around 11:54 UTC on March 2, 2024, and continued moving toward the Sun until it disintegrated by 05:42 UTC on March 3.

The comet made it about 2 million km (1.2 million miles) from the Sun’s surface before being evaporated to dust, gas and plasma, solar physicist Dr. Keith Strong said.

The comet’s remnants were then swept away by the solar wind before reaching LASCO C2 view.

Featured image credit: NASA/ESA LASCO C2 & C3, NASA SDO/AIA 304, Heliovewer, The Watchers