Bright Sungrazing Comet on July 05, 2011

A new bright comet diving into the Sun is visible right now (July 05, 21UT) in C3 and C2 images taken by SOHO spacecraft. This object belong to the famous Kreutz-group, a family of sungrazing comets that are named after German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz who first studied them in the details. These comet fragments passes extremely close to the Sun at perihelion and usually they completely evaporated during such a close approach.

C2 Image - July 05, 2011 (click to see a bigger version)

(Credit : SOHO)

C3 & C2 Movies - (click on the thumbnails to see a bigger version)

(Credit : SOHO)

You can read more details about latest bright SOHO comets here:

http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2011/05/bright-sungrazing-comet-on-may-10-11.html
http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2010/11/bright-sungrazing-comet-on-november-17.html
http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2010/11/bright-sungrazing-comet-on-1314.html
http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-bright-sungrazing-comet.html
http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-bright-sungrazing-comet.html
http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2010/01/bright-sungrazing-comet.html
http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-sungrazing-comet.html
http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-sungrazing-comet.html


UPDATE - July 08, 2011

For the first time ever, SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) captured a 20-minute movie of the comet streaking directly in front of the sun. It's not immediately obvious, but if you watch the movie closely, you'll see a line of light appear in the right and move across to the left.

Below you can see the incredible movie captured by SDO's AIA instrument (click here or on the thumbnail to see the video).

(Credit: NASA SDO)

While by clicking here you can see a beautiful LASCO/SOHO view of this Kreutz comet!!

by Ernesto Guido

Bright Sungrazing Comet on November 17-19, 2010

Only few days after the bright sungrazing comet of November 13/14, another new bright comet diving into the Sun has been discovered on Nov. 17 by Michal Kusiak using the images taken by SOHO spacecraft. This object too belong to the famous Kreutz-group, a family of sungrazing comets that are named after German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz who first studied them in the details. These comet fragments passes extremely close to the Sun at perihelion and usually they completely evaporated during such a close approach.

LASCO C2 Image - November 19, 2010

(Credit: SOHO)

C2 Movie (click on the thumbnail for a bigger version)

(Credit: SOHO)

We've had many bright Kreutz comets this year... A sign of a big one on its way?

Recently, different studies (Sekanina & Chodas 2007; Knight & Hearn 2008) have shown that the flow of Kreutz comets (correct of all systematic errors) increased. In the years since 1997 to 2002 for the Kreutz comet brighter that eighth magnitude has been calculated an average of about 83 new discoveries each year, while in the period 2003 - 2007 the average annual discovery rate risen to 125. This increase also applies to the findings of comets brighter than sixth magnitude where there was a increase in the flux of comets around 80%.

Sekanina and Chodas (2007) noted the increase in raw discoveries and suggested it may be “an early warning of another cluster of bright sungrazers approaching the Sun in coming decades.”

On November 18, 2010 the leading expert on Kreutz comets (reduced the observations of almost all of SOHO's ~1950 comets), Brian Marsden passed away after a prolonged illness. He will be remembered as contributing much to celestial mechanics and the dynamics and orbits of minor bodies of the solar system and as having an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of astronomy. Obituary on Sky & Telescope website and on mpec 2010-W10

by Ernesto Guido

Bright Sungrazing Comet on 13/14 November 2010

A new bright comet diving into the Sun has been discovered on Nov. 13th by Masanori Uchina using the images taken by SOHO spacecraft. This object belong to the famous Kreutz-group, a family of sungrazing comets that are named after German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz who first studied them in the details. These comet fragments passes extremely close to the Sun at perihelion and usually they completely evaporated during such a close approach.

Several sungrazing comets are discovered each year in SOHO images, many of them are very small and faint while sometimes some bigger and bright fragments arrive in the proximity of the Sun.

As expected, this sungrazing comet has not survived the close encounter with the sun.

C2 Image - November 14 ,2010

(Credit : SOHO)

C2 Movie (click to see a bigger version)

(Credit : SOHO & Spaceweather)

You can read more details about other recently 2010 bright SOHO comets here:

http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-bright-sungrazing-comet.html

http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2010/04/new-bright-sungrazing-comet.html

http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2010/01/bright-sungrazing-comet.html

http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-sungrazing-comet.html

http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-sungrazing-comet.html

by Ernesto Guido

New Bright Sungrazing Comet

A new bright sungrazing comet has been discovered in the images of SOHO spacecraft. The comet is probably a member of the Kreutz sungrazer family and probably will not survive this close encounter with the Sun.

This is the 3rd bright sungrazer found in the last few months. Other 2 bright sungrazers were found in January 2010:

http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2010/01/bright-sungrazing-comet.html

http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-sungrazing-comet.html

The comet is now visible in the images taken by LASCO C3 & C2 cameras of SOHO spacecraft. In the same animation, spanning roughly 12-hours, there is the comet, the planet Mercury and a coronal mass ejection (CME) :

C3 Movie

Image with labels (Credit: Spaceweather) :

C2 Movie (click to see a bigger version)

UPDATE MARCH 14

Upon closer inspection of the SOHO images it was found that this comet was part of a series of at least four comet fragments following the same trajectory. All the comets are highlighted in this video:

Anyway as expected, these sungrazing comets have not survived the close encounter with the sun.

by Ernesto Guido