A comet was gravity-fed over the weekend when NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) filmed it hurtling straight toward the Sun. ”
It is almost certainly a fragment of a giant comet that broke up centuries ago
wrote astronomer Tony Phillips for
Spaceweather.com. «
A swarm of these fragments orbits the sun, and every day at least one gets too close and disintegrates. Most, measuring less than a few meters in diameter, are too small to see, but occasionally a large fragment like today’s catches the eye.
»
The GIF below is made up of a number of images captured by SOHO. The comet can be observed irresistibly attracted by the gravitational pull of the Sun in the lower right quadrant. We see it disappear into the disc of the Sun, which is obstructed by SOHO’s coronagraph in order to avoid damaging the instrument. The comet does not reappear on the other side of the star, which suggests that it was vaporized by the intense heat.
THE COMET DID NOT SURVIVE: As with most sun-diving comets, this one did not come out the other side of the Sun following its nearest approach to the Sun (perihelion). 🙁 pic.twitter.com/ok5fHbfdDv
— Keith Strong (@drkstrong) August 7, 2022
The Sun will experience a peak of activity
The animated document also provides an interesting insight into the tumultuous life of the Sun as it approaches a peak in sunspot activity by 2025: a coronal mass ejection can be seen ejecting as the comet races towards its end.
Most comets are thought to originate from the far reaches of our solar system, in a cold, dark region called the Oort cloud. Many follow very long orbital trajectories that take them through the inner solar system and approach us only once every few decades, centuries or even longer. In the case of this anonymous comet, it probably completed its course in the Sun.
Read also
CNET.com article adapted by CNETFrance
Image : Subaru Telescope/CFHT/Man-To Hui/David Tholen
