Hey Space Placers!
As 2010 was coming to a close, interesting things were happening concerning the Sun. 25 comets did nose dives into the Sun during Dec. 13th to 22nd. These cometary kamikazes were observed by SOHO - the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).
It is fairly common for SOHO to spot a sundiving comet every few days but this "storm" of sundivers was unusual due to the numbers involved. The comets were thought to be in the 10-meter size and this is small as comets go.
But, and this is the part that excites me, there has to be big sungrazer comets out there that could be so large and bright that they could be seen in daylight! The last such comet was Ikeya-Seki in 1965. This was before I was interested in astronomy so I never saw it.
I would sure like to see one now!
Read More About It: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/12jan_cometstorm/
Sky Guy in VA
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