What is the definition of a sungrazing comet?
There is no definition of a sungrazing comet. All of the comets discovered by SOHO pass close to the Sun, and could be regarded as “sungrazers”, but the Kreutz group of comets are the definitive sungrazers. They get as close as 50,000Km from the Sun’s surface (the ‘photosphere’)… an encounter they rarely survive! • How big are the SOHO comets? The exact answer to this is not really known, but researchers have estimated that the Kreutz-group comets seen in SOHO images are typically a few tens of meters in diameter. • Are the SOHO comets visible from the ground? Mostly no. There have only been five comets discovered by SOHO that have later gone on to be visible from the ground. Most of the comets are far too small and too close to the Sun to be seen from Earth. (NOTE: Never point a telescope or binoculars at, or near, the Sun without using a special solar filter! Failure to do so will almost certainly result in blindness!) • Why don’t all of SOHO’s comets have tails? Actually, most of
