A small comet is diving toward the Sun today, August 19, 2013 and is visible on SOHO Lasco C3 imagery. It entered visual field of Lasco C3 coronagraph at 07:54 UTC on August 18th.
The comet belongs to Kreutz Sungrazer family. Those
Before 1979, there were less than a dozen known sungrazing comets. As of December 2012, we know of 2,500. Why did this number increase? With solar observatories like SOHO, STEREO, and SDO, we have not only better means of viewing the sun, but also the comets that
Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) is on the path of selfdestruction. It is set to pass through the sun's intensely hot corona, within 87,000 miles (140,000 km) of the solar surface. This point of closest approach, called perihelion, is expected at 7 p.m. EST Dec. 15
On September 14, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) watched what happened when one comet got too close. Click on the arrow to play a 6-hour time lapse movie: One icy comet went in, none came out. Discovered on Sept. 13th by Michal Kusiak of Poland and…
