The astronomer discovers a rare comet near the sun during a total solar eclipse

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Washington, An astronomer saw a small small stain flying past the Sun, which is a recent discovery rare comet, as the world witnessed total solar eclipse this month.

This comet was first spotted in satellite data by NASA-funded amateur Thai astronomer Worachate Boonplod Sungrazer Project, because Chile and Argentina witnessed the total solar eclipse on December 14, NASA reports.

Around the time the eclipse was taken, the comet was traveling at about 7,24,205 km per hour, about 4.3 million km from the Sun’s surface.

The comet was about 50 meters in diameter – about the length of a semi-truck. It then disintegrated into dust particles due to intense solar radiation, a few hours before reaching the point closest to the Sun.

Sungrazer is a citizen science project that invites anyone to search and discover new comets in common images European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO.

Boonplod discovered the comet the day before the eclipse.

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“He knew the eclipse was coming, and he was eager to see if its new discovery of the comet could appear in the Sun’s outer atmosphere like a small spike in eclipse photos,” the US space agency said in a statement late Saturday.

The comet, named C / 2020 X3 (SOHO) by the Minor Planet Center, is a “Kreutz” sungrazer.

This family of comets came from a large parent comet that split into smaller fragments well over a thousand years ago and continues to orbit the Sun today.

Kreutz sungrazing comets are most commonly found in SOHO images.

To date, 4,108 comets have been discovered in SOHO images, the 3.524th Kreutz sungrazer spotted, according to NASA.

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