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SOHO orbiting observatory dubbed history's 'most successful comet-hunter'

Comet
Tail of Christmas Comet (lower left) spotted by SOHO  

Spacecraft surpasses 100, and counting

February 9, 2000
Web posted at: 4:09 p.m. EST (2109 GMT)

GREENBELT, Maryland -- An orbiting observatory studying the Sun has found more than 100 comets in just four years of operation, making it by far the most successful comet-hunter in history, scientists announced this week.

A cooperative project between NASA and the European Space Agency, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has revealed many "suicidal" comets plunging into the Sun, and has shed light on a comet mystery that dates back to ancient Greece.

  COMET CRAZE
Space observatory spots a record number of cosmic iceballs, most plunging like Kamikazes into the Sun.
 

"SOHO is seeing fragments from the gradual breakup of a great comet, perhaps the one that the Greek astronomer Ephorus saw in 372 BC," said Dr. Brian Marsden of the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Maryland, in a NASA statement.

Counting 100 and beyond

SOHO hit the 100 mark with the help of a Lithuanian observer, who spotted a comet in the observer's data on February 4. The European Space Agency (ESA) says it completed calculations Tuesday that confirm the comet is a "previously unknown object."

"I saw the comet as a small speck of light," Kazimieras Cernis said in an ESA statement. "It had no visible tail, but it was too fuzzy to be an asteroid. By the time I had seen the object moving steadily across the sky in six successive images, I was convinced it was a comet."

The 101st and 102nd comets have also been confirmed, according to the ESA. An amateur astronomer in Germany, Maik Meyer spotted 101. Dr. Douglas Biesecker of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland identified 102. A member of the SOHO team, Biesecker is responsible for the most discoveries, 45.

How it works

Scientists have found most of the comets by poring over images from an instrument called a Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph. Known as LASCO, it functions like a giant visor, blocking out the Sun's disc so that scientists can examine an area of 12.5 million miles (20 million kilometers) around the Sun.

The SOHO Web site features stills and movies of the images, allowing even amateur astronomers to participate in the search. In England, Jonathan Shanklin discovered three comets.

"SOHO is a special chance for comet hunters," said Shanklin, the director of the British Astronomical Association's comet section, in an ESA statement. "It allows amateurs to discover some of the smallest comets ever seen. Yet they link us to sightings of great comets going back more than 2,000 years."



RELATED STORIES:
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RELATED SITES:
Hot Shots from SOHO
SOHO: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

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