A team of researchers has been using ground-based and space-based observations to monitor a comet. It was discovered over 20 years ago. It is difficult to observe due to its close proximity to the Sun.
The comet is being torn apart by the Sun.
There are comets with the designation of the SOHO. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory was launched in 1995. The mission was supposed to last two years, but has been operating for 26 years.
4,000 comets have been discovered as a result of the solar observations. The comets are very close to the Sun. Astronomers think most of the Sungrazers are pieces of a larger comet. The comet is a near-Sun comet. Smaller comets can evaporate in one close approach to the Sun. Their small perihelions spell doom for most of them.
The perihelion is only 0.04 astronomical units. The period is over four years. The comet had no cometary features as it approached perihelion. But that has changed.
The authors write that it developed a long, narrow tail mimicking a cometary debris cloud.
The first author of the paper is from the State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Science, Macau University of Science and Technology. They are from institutions in the USA, Germany, Canada, and Taiwan.
Mercury has perihelions that are smaller than the ones of segurazers. Astronomers think they are asteroids or comets that were drawn closer to the Sun via the influence of giant planets. Sungrazers don't last very long. Their lifetimes are usually less than 10 million years due to their location in the inner Solar System. They have to contend with the Sun's power and often cross the paths of the planets.
The new paper says that 323P/SO HO is flirting with destruction. The comet fragments were identified by the researchers. They found that the comet lost between 10% and 0.10% of its nucleus. It looks like it is about to end.
The nucleus of the comet is only 172 meters in diameter. The most rapid rotation of every known comet in the Solar System happened at 0.522 hours. The authors of the paper say that the nucleus has high cohesive strength. It might be able to survive more encounters with the Sun.
The researchers only observed the comet's debris tail after it left the sun, which is difficult to watch near the sun. The comets are nearly unobservable because of the Sun's brightness. Outside of perihelion, they are observable in any detail.
The models show there should be more near-Sun objects observed. It is difficult to observe them in the Sun's glare. Astronomers expect them to be millimetre-sized particles due to thermal destruction. It is difficult to observe them being turned to dust. There isn't much good-quality evidence of them breaking apart.
This is the first instance of comets being observed with ground-based observatories.
The comet may have been an ordinary Jupiter- family comet, according to the team. Jupiter- family comets are frozen volatiles. When heated by the Sun, they should form a noticeable tail. That is not the nature of the debris tail.
The high cohesive strength of 323P may help it survive close encounters with the Sun. It won't last much longer because of its instability and because it has a strong resonance with Saturn. The resonance will affect its perihelion and orbital eccentricity. For those reasons, the comet is doomed.
According to the paper, 323P has a chance of colliding with the Sun in the next two thousand years.
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