SOHO Comets: 20-Years and 3,000 Objects Later

Abstract

We present a summary of the more than 3,000 sungrazing and near-Sun comets discovered in coronagraph images returned by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), since its launch in December 1995. We address each of the four main populations of objects observed by SOHO: Kreutz (sungrazing) group, Meyer group, Marsden and Kracht (96P-Family) group, and non-group comets. Discussions for each group include basic properties, discovery statistics, and morphological appearance. In addition to updating the community on the status of the discoveries by SOHO, we also show that the rate of discovery of Kreutz sungrazers has likely remained static since approximately 2003, and report on the first likely fragmentation pair observed within the Meyer group.

Accepted for publication in Philosophical Transactions A, as part of the special issue "Cometary Science after Rosetta"; 11 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables

References in corpus (4)

• Comet 322P/SOHO 1: An asteroid with the smallest perihelion distance?
• Observations of Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) from Lowell Observatory
• Disintegration of Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) Shortly Before Perihelion: Evidence from Independent Data Sets
• Identification of a new short-period comet near the sun

Cited by in corpus (20)

• The Rosetta mission orbiter Science overview the comet phase
• Critical Science Plan for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST)
• Solar System Physics for Exoplanet Research
• Exocomets from a Solar System Perspective
• Parker Solar Probe Observations of a Dust Trail in the Orbit of (3200) Phaethon
• Sodium Brightening of (3200) Phaethon Near Perihelion
• Systematics and Consequences of Comet Nucleus Outgassing Torques
• Supercatastrophic disruption of asteroids in the context of SOHO comet, fireball and meteor observations
• Asteroid-Comet Continuum Objects in the Solar System
• Planetesimals Around Stars with TESS (PAST): I. Transient Dimming of a Binary Solar Analog at the End of the Planet Accretion Era
• Continued PSP/WISPR Observations of a Phaethon-related Dust Trail
• Properties of the Bare Nucleus of Comet 96P/Machholz 1
• Hot exozodis: cometary supply without trapping is unlikely to be the mechanism
• Rotational Disruption of Nonspherical Cometary Dust Particles by Radiative Torques
• Rapid Brightening of 3I/ATLAS Ahead of Perihelion
• Oscillations of cometary tails: a vortex shedding phenomenon?
• A Detailed Analysis of a Magnetic Island Observed by WISPR on Parker Solar Probe
• Probing the Density Fine Structuring of the Solar Corona with Comet Lovejoy
• Polarimetric analysis of STEREO observations of sungrazing Kreutz comet C/2010 E6 (STEREO)
• Covertly Active Comet (139359) 2001 ME1