TORONTO – A strange comet has surprised astronomers after it survived a near-death experience as it rounded the sun this week.
Comets that come very close to the sun are called sungrazers and usually belong to the Kruetz family of comets. But not this comet. Instead, it’s considered to be a “non-group” comet, belonging to no known family.
Sungrazers often brighten as they approach the sun and rarely survive the trip around the sun. However, this one did.
The comet came within 3.5 million kilometres of the surface of the sun — and emerged around the other side.
“There’s a half-decent chance that ground observers might be able to detect it in the coming weeks,” said Karl Battams, a solar scientist at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C. “But it’s also possible that events during its trip around the sun will cause it to die fairly fast.”
Update: An earlier version of this story had erroneously stated that the comet had passed within 3.5 kilometres of the sun’s surface, which is clearly absurd since it would have evaporated completely. The word “million” has since been added so that you, dear readers, know that the comet wasn’t some sort of zombie comet.
Comments