A Depressed Comet's Suicide

The ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) imaged comet Lovejoy yesterday, December 15, as the doomed space rock entered its Sun-centered field of view. The object is speeding towards its demise, with its fate sealed long ago.

The comet was only discovered about two weeks ago, but even then its course indicated that it's heading for the Sun. The object will not fall directly into the star, since it's a sungrazer. This means that it will pass very close to the solar surface.

Astronomers estimate that, at the point of closest approach, the two will only be separated by 140,000 kilometers (86,992 miles).

The intense heat from the Sun is expected to disintegrate the space object entirely, by vaporizing all the ice and water that's keeping it together.

By the time this is released, the comet may have already disintegrated. The fact that SOHO saw it before it happened is another piece of evidence of just how good the telescope is at finding comets. Since 1995, it saw more than 2,110 such objects.