1 month ago
The Soho-5000 comet identified Monday appears successful nan smaller achromatic container successful nan precocious near manus area of nan NASA image captured by nan SOHO spacecraft. Photo courtesy of ESA/NASA/LASCO G2/UPI
March 27 (UPI) -- A national intelligence successful nan Czech Republic connected Monday identified a caller comet while examining an image captured by nan exploratory SOHO spacecraft, which raises to 5,000 nan number of comets it has helped discover, NASA reported.
The unnamed comet is portion of nan Marsden group of comets that obit nan sun astir each 5.3 years, according to NASA. The comet group is named aft Brian Marsden, who was nan first intelligence to observe nan comet group utilizing nan European Space Agency's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, commonly referred to arsenic SOHO.
NASA said nan Marsden group of comets apt is simply a subset of nan larger 96P/Macholz comet.
SOHO is an world exploratory spacecraft tasked pinch examining nan sun. It besides has identified 5,000 comets complete nan past 28 years, which NASA says makes it nan world's astir prolific comet hunter.
The European Space Agency and NASA jointly launched SOHO successful December 1995 connected its ngo to study nan sun and its outer corona.
SOHO uses a technological instrumentality that blocks nan Sun's immense ray to alteration scientists to study nan sun's corona and its environment.
The spacecraft's typical instruments alteration SOHO to alert comparatively adjacent to nan Sun, which makes it 1 of nan fewer spacecraft tin of viewing comets that besides alert very adjacent to nan sun. Without nan typical viewing instrument, nan sun's agleam glare would hide them from view.
Several comets only are visible erstwhile nan sunlight makes them agleam capable to spot erstwhile utilizing nan types of instruments included connected nan SOHO spacecraft, according to NASA.
The comet identified Monday is nan 75th belonging to nan Marsden group that nan SOHO spacecraft has identified.
The 5,000 comets identified utilizing nan SOHO spacecraft represents much than half of each known comets.
When nan SOHO ngo first launched 28 years ago, it began identifying comets astatine a accelerated pace, which caused NASA to money its Sungrazer Project, which enables anyone to place and study comets revealed by SOHO images.
NASA refers to comets that alert very adjacent to nan sun arsenic "sungrazers."
Hanjie Tan is nan national intelligence who identified nan 5,000th comet and participates successful nan Sungrazer Project, NASA said.
Tan is from Guangzhou, China, but is moving connected a doctoral successful astronomy successful Prague. Tan has participated successful nan Sungrazer Project since he was 13 and is nan project's youngest personification to observe a comet.
Since joining nan task successful 2009, Tan has identified much than 200 comets.
"I emotion looking for comets," Tan told NASA, "It's really breathtaking to beryllium nan first to spot comets get agleam adjacent nan Sun aft they've been walking done abstraction for thousands of years."
Before nan Sungrazer Project sewage underway, NASA says only a mates twelve comets were known to alert adjacent nan sun. The task identified its 2,000th comet successful 2010, which past was nan grounds for astir comets identified by a azygous instrument.
