The Sun has been gobbling up comets lately, with latest one being a surprising comet going to its demise early on the morning of Saturday, April 10, 2010.
The comet, which was previously known, was first captured by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory on Friday. However, by yesterday morning, it was reported that it had entirely vanished, its icy body having melted up and disintegrated by the scorching heat of the sun.
The Sun possesses a large gravitational field due to which comets are naturally drawn into the Sun thereby plunging into the hot, fiery star called Sun.
The incident was written up in the January 6, 2010 iTWire article "NASA catches Sun gobbling up a Kreutz comet."
The SpaceWeather website states, "The comet was probably a member of the Kreutz sungrazer family. Named after a 19th century German astronomer who studied them in detail, Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a giant comet at least 2000 years ago".
Related News
- SDO captures comet’s death dive into the Sun
- Meteor shower from remnants of Halley’s Comet to peak this Friday
- The History of Comets
- NASA spacecraft’s Valentine rendezvous with comet Tempel 1
- Study: Water from comets spear to have filled up Earth’s oceans
- Comet electricals owner back to profit gear
- Perseid meteor showers likely to continue through the weekend
