Astrophotographer Petr Horálek managed to take a very rare picture. He could take a picture of a comet during the solar eclipse that took place on April 8, 2024.
The tailed guest caught in Horálek’s image is the near-solar comet SOHO-5008. This is what icy bodies are called, the perihelion orbits of which pass at a very short distance from the Sun.
These objects are not unique in themselves. Recently, the SOHO Observatory celebrated the discovery of its five thousandth near-solar comet (and it also discovered SOHO-5008). Something else gives interest to the situation. Karl Battams, the head of the Sungrazer project, in which astro enthusiasts search for near-solar comets, predicted in advance that SOHO-5008 would be visible in the sky during the eclipse.
Petr Horálek was able to confirm this forecast. Despite concerns about clouds, he took a series of hundreds of images of the eclipse. After the photographer processed and combined them into a single image, he managed to get an epic portrait of a rare celestial phenomenon. To the bottom left of the Moon-covered Sun, you can just see a comet.
It is worth saying that, like the vast majority of near-solar comets, SOHO-5008 did not survive the encounter with the Sun. Shortly after Horálek took his picture, it was completely destroyed by its powerful radiation.
According to https://www.esa.int
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