Space telescope discovers comet 5000 (which is special because it wasn't designed for that)

Project Sungrazer's SOHO space telescope has now discovered its 5,000th comet. This news represents an important (and somewhat unexpected) milestone for both NASA and ESA.

A solar telescope that turned out to be a real comet hunter; This is now a story Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) Space telescope. As the name suggests, SOHO's primary goal was to observe the Sun and the surrounding region, known as the Sun's “corona.” Photos of Soho are publicly available, and it's perhaps not surprising that many space enthusiasts have enjoyed carefully studying these (unique) images. This quickly led to the discovery of several comets approaching the Sun, prompting collaborating scientists from NASA and ESA to establish a formal program where such comets could be reported: Sengrazer Project. This project has now achieved a major milestone: the discovery of SOHO-5000. Website for Sengrazer Project Can here To find it. SOHO images can here To find it.

Then more about the comet itself; SOHO-5000. It turns out that this is a relatively small celestial body composed mainly of ice and rock. The comet does not fly by chance, but it appears to have been in the area for some time. For example, scientists suspect that the comet is part of Marsden Collection; A group of comets likely associated with comet 96P/Machholz. In this sense, SOHO-5000 is quite unique: out of 5,000 comets, only about 75 comets are part of the solar system. Marsden Group.

Space fan
The comet was spotted by Hanji Tan. Tan is a real fan of space. He has been participating since he was 13 years old Sengrazer Project He is currently studying astronomy in Prague. He says: “I participated in the project in 2009. Since then, I have discovered more than 200 comets. I love spotting comets. It's very exciting to be the first to discover a comet. Especially since these comets often glow when they approach the Sun. Tan is one of the youngest participants in the project.

There's a good reason why the SOHO Space Telescope can observe so many comets. For example, this space telescope uses a physical disk to block direct light from the Sun, so that the region around the Sun can be studied. However, this turns out to have another unexpected advantage: by blocking out sunlight, SOHO can suddenly detect comets much better that would otherwise remain invisible.

Volunteers
This achievement is important because its achievement demonstrates the importance of projects such as Sengrazer Project We are. Scientist Karl Battams is leading the project. “(In 1995, ed.) Before the SOHO mission began, we had identified only a small number of comets,” he explains. The fact that we have now been able to capture more than 5,000 comets is amazing. Together, these comets provide a very unique and valuable data set for science. This achievement would not have been possible without the participation of a large number of volunteers in the project. Together they dedicated many hours to the project.