Watch a Comet Get Torn Apart by the Sun and Become a Headless Ghost

Bad news for skywatchers: A sungrazing comet that was set to put on a bright display succumbed to a fateful encounter with our host star. Comet MAPS (C/2026 A1) was obliterated during its perihelion, or closest approach to the Sun, on Saturday, April 4. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) captured the comet’s death dive as it came within 99,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) of the Sun’s atmosphere. The joint NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) SOHO mission constantly watches the Sun from about 932,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) away. During its observing run earlier this week, the spacecraft’s coronagraph captured comet MAPS racing toward the Sun for a close encounter. As the video shows, right before the comet breaks apart, there’s a sudden brightening that was likely due to its nucleus exploding from the intense heat. After the nucleus exploded, the comet was left behind as a ghostly tail with no head. As the comet hid behind the coronagraph’s disk, its fragmented nucleus vaporized and a trail of dusty debris exited from the other side. Astronomers and skywatchers were hoping for a different ending for MAPS. The recently discovered comet is part of a group of comets c