C/2020 X3, spotted by the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), is part of the Kreutz family, a group of comets with related orbits that broke off of a giant comet several centuries ago.
This image, taken by the LASCO C2 camera on SOHO, shows comet C/2020 X3 in the bottom left-hand corner. Image credit: NASA / ESA / SOHO.
C/2020 X3 was discovered by Thai amateur astronomer Worachate Boonplod on the NASA-funded Sungrazer project, a citizen science project that invites anyone to search for and discover new comets in SOHO images.
Boonplod spotted the comet on December 13, 2020, the day before the December 14 total solar eclipse.
The astronomer knew the eclipse was coming, and was eager to see whether C/2020 X3 might appear in the Sun’s outer atmosphere as a small speck in eclipse photographs.
C/2020 X3 is a Kreutz sungrazer comet approximately 15 m (50 feet) in diameter with a diffuse, elongated coma and a short, bright tail.
Around the time the SOHO images were taken, C/2020 X3 was traveling at 724,205 km per hour (450,000 mph), about 4.3 million km (2.7 million miles) from the Sun’s surface.
It then disintegrated to dust particles due to intense solar radiation, a few hours before reaching its closest point to the Sun.
This composite image shows the total solar eclipse on December 14, 2020, based on 65 frames taken by Andreas Möller of Arbeitskreis Meteore e.V. and processed by Jay Pasachoff and Roman Vanur. Image credit: Andreas Möller, Arbeitskreis Meteore e.V. / Jay Pasachoff / Roman Vanur / Joy Ng.
“Kreutz sungrazing comets originated from a large parent comet that broke up into smaller fragments well over a thousand years ago and continues to orbit around the Sun today,” SOHO astronomers said.
“These comets are most commonly found in SOHO images.”
“SOHO’s camera works by mimicking total solar eclipses,” they added.
“A solid occulting disk blocks out the otherwise blinding light of the Sun, revealing dimmer features in its outer atmosphere and other celestial objects like comets.”
“To date, 4,108 comets have been discovered in SOHO images, with C/2020 X3 being the 3,524th Kreutz sungrazer spotted.”
The SOHO observations are reported in the Minor Planet Electronic Circular.
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K. Battams et al. 2020. Comet C/2020 X3 (SOHO). MPEC 2020-Y19
