Volunteers Help ESA & NASA Mission to Discover 5,000 Comets

  • Released Wednesday, March 27, 2024
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The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint mission of ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA, has discovered its 5,000th comet, thanks to the help of volunteer comet hunters participating in the NASA-funded Sungrazer Project.

The sungrazing comet was spotted in SOHO images on March 25, 2024, by Hanjie Tan in the Czech Republic, who has participated in the Sungrazer Project since he was 13 years old. The comet is small and has a short orbital period around the Sun. It belongs to the “Marsden group” of comets, which are thought to be related to the larger comet 96P/Machholz. The group is named after the late scientist Brian Marsden, who first recognized the group using SOHO observations.

To learn more about the discovery and SOHO, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/esa-nasa-solar-observatory-discovers-its-5000th-comet/

Since the early 2000s, the Sungrazer Project has allowed anyone with a computer to search for comets in images taken by the SOHO spacecraft.

To learn more about the Sungrazer Project, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/citizen-science/the-sungrazer-project/

What this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Complete transcript available.

Music credit: "Machines Made This" by Brian Colin Burrows [PRS] from Universal Production Music

Sound effects: Pixabay

The 5,000th comet discovered by the European Space Agency & NASA’s SOHO observatory is seen here in an image from the spacecraft taken on March 25, 2024.Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Karl Battams

The 5,000th comet discovered by the European Space Agency & NASA’s SOHO observatory is seen here in an image from the spacecraft taken on March 25, 2024.

Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Karl Battams

The 5,000th comet discovered by the European Space Agency & NASA’s SOHO observatory is seen here in an image from the spacecraft taken on March 25, 2024.Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Karl Battams

The 5,000th comet discovered by the European Space Agency & NASA’s SOHO observatory is seen here in an image from the spacecraft taken on March 25, 2024.

Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Karl Battams

This annotated movie from the European Space Agency & NASA’s SOHO observatory shows the 5,000th comet discovered by the spacecraft as it speeds toward the Sun on March 25, 2024.

Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Karl Battams

This annotated movie from the European Space Agency & NASA’s SOHO observatory shows the 5,000th comet discovered by the spacecraft as it speeds toward the Sun on March 25, 2024.

Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Karl Battams

This annotated movie from the European Space Agency & NASA’s SOHO observatory shows the 5,000th comet discovered by the spacecraft as it speeds toward the Sun on March 25, 2024.Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Karl Battams

This annotated movie from the European Space Agency & NASA’s SOHO observatory shows the 5,000th comet discovered by the spacecraft as it speeds toward the Sun on March 25, 2024.

Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Karl Battams

This annotated movie from the European Space Agency & NASA’s SOHO observatory shows the 4,999th comet discovered by the spacecraft as it speeds toward the Sun on March 23, 2024.

Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Karl Battams

This annotated movie from the European Space Agency & NASA’s SOHO observatory shows the 4,998th comet discovered by the spacecraft as it speeds toward the Sun on March 23, 2024.

Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Karl Battams

This annotated movie from the European Space Agency & NASA’s SOHO observatory shows the 4,997th comet discovered by the spacecraft as it speeds toward the Sun on March 21, 2024.

Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Karl Battams

This annotated movie from the European Space Agency & NASA’s SOHO observatory shows the 4,996th comet discovered by the spacecraft as it speeds toward the Sun on March 14, 2024.

Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Karl Battams

This annotated movie from the European Space Agency & NASA’s SOHO observatory shows the 4,995th comet discovered by the spacecraft as it speeds toward the Sun on March 14, 2024.

Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Karl Battams

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.
This page was last updated on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 at 3:33 PM EDT.