On Saturday, the satellite captured the incoming comet getting brighter and brighter until it got too close to the sun and completely disintegrated.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — You may have heard about a potentially bright comet being visible in April. Unfortunately, that comet is no more as it completely disintegrated as it got too close to the sun.Â
The comet, designated as C/2026 A1 (MAPS), was known as a sungrazer comet due to how close it was projected to get to the surface of the sun. Sungrazer comets are known to be unpredictable as they are more often destroyed by the sun.Â
On occasion, sungrazers have survived and became bright comets. One of the more notable ones recently was Comet Lovejoy in 2011.
The death of Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) was actually seen on NASA’s LASCO satellite!Â
The satellite produces coronagraph images which are used to monitor solar activity for potential solar storms, which could lead to the Northern Lights and telecommunication outages.Â
On Saturday, the satellite captured the incoming comet getting brighter and brighter until it got too close to the sun and completely disintegrated.
If you were hoping to see a bright comet this month, you’ll have to wait until later in April when another comet, Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) could become visible around April 26. We’ll be watching that one closely, so stay tuned for updates on the comet as we continue through the month.
— Meteorologist Aaron White
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