Comet Catcher

SOHO - The Comet Catcher




Credit: SOHO, ESA, NASA

"Comet Bradfield passed through the SOHO C3 coronagraph's field of view from April 16 through April 20, 2004. It created quite a sensation with its bright head and long white tail trailing behind it. A mask in the coronagraph (dark disk in center) blocks out the sun's intense light to allow us to see faint objects in the corona, the sun's tenuous outer atmosphere. The white circle on the coronagraph disk represents the size of the sun."


SOHO was built to study the Sun and turns out to be the best comet catcher ever as well. 1500 comets have been discovered by this fabulous instrument.