© NASA/SOHONASA captured a stunning video showing this fairly bright white comet as it dove towards the Sun -- and was never heard from again.
NASA's solar observatory captured a stunning video of a comet streaking towards the sun between Tuesday and Wednesday -- and the aftermath when it collided with the tremendous ball of plasma.
The video, captured by NASA's Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), appears to show a fireball jet out following the collision. That's not quite what happened, NASA explained. Instead, a coronal mass ejection coincidentally blasted out to the right just as the comet approaches and is vaporized by the sun.
The comet is probably part of the Kreutz family -- remnants of a single giant comet that broke up many centuries ago, and crash against its surface from time to time. It was discovered by amateur astronomer Sergey Shurpakov, the space agency said.
In this coronagraph, an opaque disk blocks the glare of the sun like an artificial eclipse, revealing faint objects that no Earth-bound telescope could possibly see. It's intended to allow scientists to view the faint structures in the sun's corona -- but it also reveals sungrazing comets like this one.
Comment: Unfortunately, Space Weather's commentator does not take into account the idea that there is an electrical discharge phenomena taking place here which can easily explain why the eruption began before the physical arrival of the comet. If a comet in the far reaches of the solar system can induce Solar discharge events - which is part of the Electric Universe theory - then certainly, a discharge event can begin to manifest as the comet approaches.
From our recent review of Planet-X, Comets and Earth Changes by J.M. McCanney, we understand solar discharge events as follows: Given the electrical nature of the Sun and comets, there is likely more than just "coincidence" at play here.