Comet that is extremely close to the sun during part of its orbit
A sungrazing comet is a comet that passes extremely close to the Sun at perihelion – sometimes within a few thousand kilometres of the Sun's surface. Although small sungrazers can completely evaporate during such a close approach to the Sun, larger sungrazers can survive many perihelion passages. However, the strong evaporation and tidal forces they experience often lead to their fragmentation.
Up until the 1880s, it was thought that all bright comets near the Sun were the repeated return of a single sungrazing comet. Then, German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz and American astronomer Daniel Kirkwood determined that, instead of the return of the same comet, each appearance was a different comet, but each were related to a group of comets that had separated from each other at an earlier passage near the Sun (at perihelion).[1] Very little was known about the population of sungrazing comets until 1979 when coronagraphic observations allowed the detection of sungrazers. As of October 21, 2017, there are 1495 known comets that come within ~12 solar radii (~0.055 AU).[2] This accounts for nearly one third of all comets.[3] Most of these objects vaporize during their close approach, but a comet with a nucleus radius larger than 2–3 km is likely to survive the perihelion passage with a final radius of ~1 km.
Sungrazer comets were some of the earliest observed comets because they can appear very bright. Some are even considered Great Comets. The close passage of a comet to the Sun will brighten the comet not only because of the reflection off the comet nucleus when it is closer to the Sun, but the Sun also vaporizes a large amount of gas from the comet and the gas reflects more light. This extreme brightening will allow for possible naked eye observations from Earth depending on how volatile the gases are and if the comet is large enough to survive perihelion. These comets provide a useful tool for understanding the composition of comets as we observe the outgassing activity and they also offer a way to probe the effects solar radiation has on other Solar System bodies.
^Kirkwood, Daniel (November 1880). "On the great southern comet of 1880". The Observatory. 3: 590–592. Bibcode:1880Obs.....3..590K.
^JPL Small-Body Database Search Engine
^Johnston, Robert (27 July 2013). "Known populations of solar system objects". Retrieved 30 July 2013.
A sungrazingcomet is a comet that passes extremely close to the Sun at perihelion – sometimes within a few thousand kilometres of the Sun's surface....
observers in January 2007. It was the brightest in over 40 years. A sungrazingcomet is a comet that passes extremely close to the Sun at perihelion, generally...
Comet ISON, formally known as C/2012 S1, was a sungrazingcomet from the Oort cloud which was discovered on 21 September 2012 by Vitaly Nevsky (Віталь...
a sungrazingcomet, one which passes extremely close to the surface of the Sun. For many hours on either side of its perihelion passage, the comet was...
The Kreutz sungrazers (/ˈkrɔɪts/ KROYTS) are a family of sungrazingcomets, characterized by orbits taking them extremely close to the Sun at perihelion...
Although it was undeniably a sungrazingcomet, it was probably not part of the Kreutz family. Isaac Newton used the comet to test and verify Kepler's laws...
(September 1974), the Comet Kohoutek is mentioned as having freed Magneto from imprisonment within the Earth's core. Comet ISON – sungrazingcomet that disintegrated...
amateur astronomer. He has discovered six comets, including C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy), the first Kreutz Sungrazingcomet discovered by ground-based observation...
periodic comets—Unnumbered comets with a period of less than 200 years List of numbered comets—Comets numbered by the Minor Planet Center Sungrazingcomets Kreutz...
Hotshots". sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2019-01-23. "A SOHO and SungrazingComet FAQ". home.earthlink.net. Archived from the original on 2012-08-05...
Lacruz J, Riesen TE (2013). Post-discovery Photometric Follow-up of SungrazingComet C/2012 S1 ISON (PDF). 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference....
southern hemisphere. As the comet receded from the Sun, orbital studies showed that Pereyra had been a sungrazingcomet, passing just 60,000 kilometres...
satellite in space to discover a comet in general and a sungrazingcomet in particular. In total, 9 sungrazingcomets, all belonging to the Kreutz group...
Southern Comet Disappears", New York Times, February 27, 1887 Kronk, p.591 Sekanina, Z. Statistical Investigation and Modeling of SungrazingComets Discovered...
ISON. The album was released in April 2017, and is named after Comet ISON, a sungrazingcomet. In January 2018, Sevdaliza released a new track "Soul Syncable"...
orbits of several sungrazingcomets, which revealed that they were all related objects, produced when a very large Sun-grazing comet fragmented several...
often observes sungrazingcomets, including the Kreutz sungrazers. The Kreutz sungrazers originate from the progenitor of the Great Comet of 1106. Although...
Zdenek; Chodas, Paul W. (2008). "A New Orbit Determination for Bright SungrazingComet of 1843". the Astrophysical Journal. 687 (2): 1415–1422. Bibcode:2008ApJ...
ISBN 978-0-486-66317-3. "Comet Elenin as seen by STEREO-B, and what we think is going to happen next..." SungrazingComets. Archived from the original...