The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint mission of ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA, has discovered its 5,000th comet, thanks to the help of volunteer comet hunters participating in the NASA-funded Sungrazer Project.

The sungrazing comet was spotted in SOHO images on March 25, 2024, by Hanjie Tan in the Czech Republic, who has participated in the Sungrazer Project since he was 13 years old. The comet is small and has a short orbital period around the Sun. It belongs to the “Marsden group” of comets, which are thought to be related to the larger comet 96P/Machholz. The group is named after the late scientist Brian Marsden, who first recognized the group using SOHO observations.

To learn more about the discovery and SOHO, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/science-rese...

Since the early 2000s, the Sungrazer Project has allowed anyone with a computer to search for comets in images taken by the SOHO spacecraft.

To learn more about the Sungrazer Project, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/citizen-scie...

Music credit: "Machines Made This" by Brian Colin Burrows [PRS] from Universal Production Music

Sound effects: Pixabay

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Producer: Lacey Young (MORI Associates)
Editor: Lacey Young (MORI Associates)
Videographer: Joy Ng (National Institute of Aerospace)
Advisor: Beth Anthony (MORI Associates)
Scientist: Karl Battams (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)

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