Explanation:
Most comets don't survive a close encounter with the Sun.
Two years ago this month, though,
Comet ISON was thought by some to be big enough to withstand its perilous sungrazing
dive.
The
featured
video
shows the drama as it was recorded by NASA's
Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory
(SOHO) satellite.
As many
Earthlings watched
in fascination,
a bright area
did emerge from closest approach, but it
soon faded and dispersed.
It is now assumed that no large fragments of
Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) survived.
Besides the comet, the active Sun is seen to eject puffs of
plasma
known as
coronal mass ejections.
Launched in 1995,
sun-orbiting SOHO
has become a historic device in the discovery and tracking of comets known as
sungrazers.
Two months ago, a comet designated
SOHO 3000 was named in honor of the
record 3000th comet that was
discovered on SOHO images, a total that amounts to about half of all known comets.
