Sometimes comets can transform into something beautiful if they get too close to the Sun. Astronomers have never seen the destruction of a type of comet called a near-Sun comet. Scientists have captured images of a comet breaking apart thanks to a variety of telescopes on the summit. The scarcity of periodic near- Sun comets could be explained by the breakdown of this comet.
Other types of comets have broken apart in the solar corona. After putting on a spectacular show, comet Leonard broke apart in January, 2022. A comet that makes a close pass of the Sun is called a Sun-grazing comet. Since it was launched in 1995, theSOHO has detected over 4,000 Sun-gazers.
There are also Sun-divers. Karl Battams is from the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC. The comets that are tracked by Battams are those that belong to the 'Kreutz' family of comets.
Battams said there was no clearly defined separation between the two comets. He was part of a group of astronomer that drafted some guidelines.
Near-Sun comets should encompass all objects that come within the range of Mercury, about.3AU. Sunskirters are defined as objects that pass within 33 solar radii of the Sun's center, equal to half of Mercury's perihelion distance. Sun-divers are comets that intersect the sun's photoosphere.
Battams says that the definitions can be confusing because not all comets are Sun-grazing comets.
The comet that was recently observed while breaking apart, named 323P/SO HO, is a short period comet that experienced a different environment.
Battams said it has been getting slowly baked with repeated passes in a warm environment, leading to a slow but steady demise. This is the first time that we have been able to say that many of the non-Kreutz that we see are undergoing this process.
This first-of-its-kind observations for this class of comet is an important result for telling us about the evolution and end stages of comets. There are more observed near-Sun objects than models suggest.
The nucleus of comet 323P/SO HO is only 172 meters in diameter and was discovered in 1999. It is the most rapid rotation of all known comets. It has come close to the Sun many times. It came perilously close to the Sun with a perihelion of only 0.04 astronomical units. Smaller comets that come that close are in danger of doom.
It's hard to spot comets like 323P because they pass so close to the sun. An international group of astronomer from Macau, the US, Germany, Taiwan, and Canada used multiple telescopes to study this object.
It was the first time that 323P/SO HO was captured by a ground-based telescope when it was observed with the telescope. The researchers knew where to point the other telescopes when 323P/SO HO moved away from the Sun again.
The researchers were surprised to find that 323P/SO HO had changed remarkably. The data from the telescope showed a dot.
The authors said that it developed a long, narrow tail mimicking a cometary debris cloud.
The color of 323P/SO HO is different than any other in the Solar System. They want to see if other near-Sun comets have the same characteristics.
The comet is thought to have broken off due to thermal fracturing, similar to how ice cubes crack when you pour a hot drink over them. The mass loss mechanism could explain why there are so few comets.
The researchers want to find the remnants of the comet on its next perihelion. It will plunge into the Sun on a close pass.
There are sources.
There is a paper about the demise of a periodic comet.
The NAOJ released a press release.
Emailing with Karl Battams.
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