People around the world witnessed Comet ATLAS’ unexpected meeting with the Sun.
Comet ATLAS (C/2024 S1) was expected to be as bright as Venus by Halloween, but the Sun has been brutal on it. ATLAS; It passed closest to Earth on October 24 and began moving toward an extremely close encounter with the Sun on October 28. The comet, which approached 1.2 million kilometers from the Sun, could not escape the gravitational force of the Sun and the star evaporated and disappeared in a short time. These moments were recorded by NASA and the video above emerged.
The show ended early
Astronomers knew that the comet was at risk of extinction. This comet belonged to the Kreutz sungrazer family, objects destroyed by the Sun, because its perihelions were extremely close to our star. These comets were all parts of a much larger comet body that broke apart centuries ago and was named after Heinrich Kreutz, who first demonstrated their relationship in the 19th century.
In fact, this event is an example that shows that giant masses such as the Sun or Jupiter protect the Earth from deadly comets. It is known that many large asteroids flying uncontrollably in the solar system are destroyed by the gravity of masses such as the Sun, Jupiter or the Moon, thus eliminating the risk of those giant rocks hitting our planet.
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