Explanation:
Not one, but two comets appeared near the Sun during
last week’s total solar eclipse.
The expected comet was
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks,
but it was disappointingly dimmer than many had hoped.
However, relatively unknown Comet SOHO-5008 also appeared in long duration camera exposures.
This comet was the 5008th comet identified on images taken by
ESA &
NASA’s Sun-orbiting
SOHO spacecraft.
Likely much smaller, Comet SOHO-5008 was a sungrazer which
disintegrated within hours as it passed too
near the Sun.
The featured image is not only unusual for capturing
two comets during an eclipse,
but one of the rare times that a
sungrazing comet has been photographed from the Earth’s surface.
Also visible in the image is the
sprawling corona of
our Sun and the planets
Mercury (left) and
Venus (right).
Of these planets and comets, only
Venus was easily visible to
millions of people in the
dark shadow of the Moon that
crossed North America on April 8.