This comet was first seen in satellite data by Thai amateur astronomer Worachate Boonplod, funded by NASA
Around the time the eclipse image was taken, the comet was traveling at approximately 7,24,205 kms per hour, about 4.3 million kms from the Sun’s surface.
The comet was about 50 feet in diameter, about the length of a semi truck. It then disintegrated into dust due to intense solar radiation, a few hours before reaching the point closest to the Sun.
Sungrazer is a citizen science project that invites everyone to look for and discover new quotes in images of the joint
Boonplod discovered the comet a day before the eclipse.
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“I knew the eclipse would come and I was eager to see if its new discovery of the comet could appear in the Sun’s outer atmosphere as a small spot of photographs of the eclipse,” the US space agency said. in a statement Saturday afternoon.
The comet, named C / 2020 X3 (SOHO) by the Minor Planet Center, is a “Kreutz” sungrazer.
This family of comets originated from a large parent comet that split into smaller fragments more than a thousand years ago and continues to orbit the Sun today.
Kreutz sungrazing comets are more frequently found in SOHO images.
To date, 4,108 comets have been discovered in SOHO images, with the comet being the 3,524th Kreutz sungrazer detected, according to NASA.
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