A sungrazing comet is a comet that passes extremely close to the Sun at perihelion – sometimes within a few thousand kilometres of the Sun's surface. Although small sungrazers can completely evaporate during such a close approach to the Sun, larger sungrazers can survive many perihelion passages. However, the strong evaporation and tidal forces they experience often lead to their fragmentation.
The Great Comet of 1843, formally designated C/1843 D1 and 1843 I, was a long-period comet which became very bright in March 1843. It was discovered on February 5, 1843, and rapidly brightened to become a great comet. It was a member of the Kreutz Sungrazers, a family of comets resulting from the breakup of a parent comet into multiple fragments in about 1106. These comets pass extremely close to the surface of the Sun—within a few solar radii—and often become very bright as a result.
The Great Comet of 1882, formally designated as C/1882 R1, 1882 II, and 1882b, was a comet which became very bright in September 1882. It was a member of the Kreutz Sungrazers, a family of comets which pass within 1 R☉ of the Sun's photosphere at perihelion.
The Kreutz sungrazers are a family of sungrazing comets, characterized by orbits taking them extremely close to the Sun at perihelion. At the far extreme of their orbits, aphelion, Kreutz sungrazers can be a hundred times farther from the Sun than the Earth is, while their distance of closest approach can be less than twice the Sun's radius. They are believed to be fragments of one large comet that broke up several centuries ago and are named for German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz, who first demonstrated that they were related. These sungrazers make their way from the distant outer Solar System to the inner Solar System, to their perihelion point near the Sun, and then leave the inner Solar System in their return trip to their aphelion.
Heinrich Carl Friedrich Kreutz was a German astronomer, most notable for his studies of the orbits of several sungrazing comets, which revealed that they were all related objects, produced when a very large Sun-grazing comet fragmented several hundred years previously. The group is now known as the Kreutz Sungrazers, and has produced some of the brightest comets ever seen, including X/1106 C1 and Comet Ikeya–Seki. The source of the group may have been the Great Comet of 371 BC.
Comet White–Ortiz–Bolelli was a bright comet which appeared in 1970. It was a member of the Kreutz sungrazers, a family of comets which resulted from the break-up of a large parent comet several centuries ago. It was already easily visible to the naked eye when first discovered, and reached a maximum apparent magnitude of +1.
C/1680 V1, also called the Great Comet of 1680, Kirch's Comet, and Newton's Comet, was the first comet discovered by telescope. It was discovered by Gottfried Kirch and was one of the brightest comets of the seventeenth century.
X/1106 C1, also known as the Great Comet of 1106, was a comet that appeared on 2 February 1106, and was observed around the world from the beginning of February through to mid-March. It was recorded by astronomers in Wales, England, Japan, Korea, China, Continental Europe, and Egypt.
Comet Howard–Koomen–Michels, also formally known as C/1979 Q1 (Solwind), was a large sungrazing comet that collided with the Sun on August 30, 1979. It is the first comet discovered by an orbiting satellite and the only comet known to have made contact with the Sun's surface, as most bodies vaporize before impact.
The Great Southern Comet of 1887, or C/1887 B1 using its International Astronomical Union (IAU) designation, was a bright comet seen from the Southern Hemisphere during January 1887. Later calculations indicated it to be part of the Kreutz Sungrazing group. It came to perihelion on 11 January 1877 at a distance of 0.00483 AU (723 thousand km) with a velocity of 606.1 km/s. Since the Sun has a radius of 696000 km, the comet passed about 27000 km from the surface of the Sun.
Comet Lovejoy, formally designated C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy), is a long-period comet and Kreutz sungrazer. It was discovered in November 2011 by Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy. The comet's perihelion took it through the Sun's corona on 16 December 2011, after which it emerged intact, though greatly impacted by the event.
Comet C/2012 E2 (SWAN) was a Kreutz group sungrazing comet discovered by Vladimir Bezugly in publicly available images taken by the SWAN instrument on board the SOHO spacecraft. It is recognized for being the first Kreutz sungrazer observed in SWAN imagery.
The Great Comet of 372–371 BC was a comet that is thought to possibly be the source of the Kreutz sungrazer family.
C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) was a sungrazing comet that was discovered by ATLAS-HKO in Hawaii on 27 September 2024. The comet passed its perihelion on 28 October 2024, at a distance of about 0.008 AU from the barycenter of the Solar System, and disintegrated. The comet had a similar orbit to the Kreutz sungrazers, which were created by the fragmentation of a large comet in 1106.
The Eclipse Comet of 1882, designated as X/1882 K1, was a Kreutz sungrazer comet that was spotted during the solar eclipse of May 17, 1882. It is sometimes referred to as Comet Tewfik, named after the Khedive of Egypt at the time, Tewfik Pasha.
The Great Southern Comet of 1880, formally designated as C/1880 C1 in modern nomenclature, is a comet that became visible in the naked eye throughout the Southern hemisphere in February 1880. It is notable for being classified as a "great comet" not by its apparent magnitude, but by its prominent tail.
96P sungrazer family is a small group of sungrazing comets, originating from 96P/Macholz comet. All comets belonging to this group are discovered by NASA/ESA SOHO satellite. It contains three subgroups: Marsden, Kracht and Kracht II.
Comet du Toit, formal designation C/1945 X1, is a sungrazing comet that was observed four times by South African astronomer, Daniel du Toit, on December 1945. The comet is a member of the Kreutz sungrazer family.
