SOHO Pick of the Week – Comet Machholz Plus Two 9 Jan 2002
From January 6th through the 9th, 2001 SOHO watched the Comet
Machholz 1 as it streaked by the Sun. This comet’s path takes it
near the Sun every five and a half years. It had a much brighter tail
than expected, which became even brighter as it got closer to the
Sun. But as a bonus, the planet Venus was also imaged as it passed
behind the Sun and a coronal mass ejection (CME) blasted from the
upper left edge of the Sun (with no apparent impact on the comet).
Getting to see all three at once brought big smiles to the SOHO team.
(The horizontal white lines extending out from Venus and the comet’s
head are caused by overexposure spreading out on the spacecraft’s
detector.)
