Universe ID: 4344

Lots of Comets - Short trail version

Visualizations by Tom Bridgman Released on September 15, 2015

This visualization presents 14 years of comets seen by SOHO from the perspective of an observer at a fixed point above the ecliptic plane with the Sun at the center.

Stationed in a halo orbit around the Earth-Sun Lagrange point since 1996, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has monitored the Sun for nearly 20 years. The Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) instrument blocks out the bright solar disk, making it easier to see the corona of plasma and dust around the Sun, normally only visible during solar eclipses. This instrument also provides a very large field of view of the region around the Sun.
In addition to the benefit of this capability in solar studies, SOHO/LASCO can see many comets which pass very close to the Sun, called 'sungrazers'. Observers on Earth rarely see these objects as they are obstructed by the Sun's glare and Earth's atmospheric scattering at sunrise and sunset. SOHO/LASCO has seen not only many known comets, but discovered many more NEW sungrazing comets. At the time of this writing, the discovery count is approaching 3000.
There are nearly 1800 comets and trajectories plotted in these visualizations which covers the time frame from January 1996 to May 2010 at the rate of one frame of the movie corresponding to one day. The great majority of these comets are Kreutz group members (the red trails).
The trails are color coded based on group membership.

Yellow - unaffiliated comets

Red - Kreutz group.

Green - Meyer group

Blue - Marsden

Cyan - Kracht

Magenta - Kracht 2

Important Notes and Caveats:

This version of the visualization provides short trails for all comets. An alternate version with long trails for periodic comets is available at Lot of Comets - Long trail version
The Kreutz group comets rarely make it past perihelion (the closest pass to the Sun) so these orbits terminate a day after perihelion.
The Kreutz group comets appear to stream sunward in bunches. This is an artifact of the fact that it is less likely for SOHO to detect incoming Kreutz objects during some parts of the year.
The trails represent the orbital path of the comet nucleus, NOT the comet tail.
Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Sungrazing Comets Page

This visualization presents 14 years of comets seen by SOHO from the perspective of an observer at the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1, approximately the position of SOHO.

This visualization presents 14 years of comets seen by SOHO from the perspective of an observer orbiting a fixed point above the ecliptic plane with the Sun at the center.

This visualization presents 14 years of comets seen by SOHO from the perspective of an observer above the ecliptic plane looking 'down' on the solar system with the Sun at the center.

This visualization presents 14 years of comets seen by SOHO from the perspective of an observer at a fixed point in the ecliptic plane with the Sun at the center.

Visualization Credits

Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Visualizer
Karl Battams (Naval Research Laboratory): Lead Scientist
Genna Duberstein (USRA): Lead Producer
Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Producer
Karen Fox (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Lead Writer

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4344

Mission:
SOHO

Data Used:

JPL DE421 also referred to as: DE421

Ephemeris - NASA/JPL

Planetary ephemerides

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?ephemerides#planets

view all stories where this data set is used

Knight-Pierce Sungrazer Collection also referred to as: Sungrazer Collection

Data Compilation - Lowell Observatory

view all stories where this data set is used

Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
SOHO Approaches 3000 Comet Discoveries

Keywords:
SVS >> Comet
SVS >> Solar System
NASA Science >> Universe
SVS >> Sungrazing Comets