Comet MAPS last steps
Taken by Dr. J. Wayne Wooten on April 4, 2026 @
Pensacola, Florida, USA
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After decades of watching sungrazers startle and disappoint, think I see the predicted demise of the latest one in real lime Saturday about 5 PM CDT. The nucleus has completely disintegrated, and the loop you see on the SOHO C2 corograph image is the dusty debris spreading as it rounds perihelion. The nucleus was already split and spreading when I passed out the photos at last night's planetarium show, so this was not surprising.
If I interpret this correctly, the comet came from the lower right wider part of the arc, had no nucleus left when the perihelion point (top of the arc at about 1:30) was reached, and remaining dust is still spreading and fading as it passes between us and the Sun at about 1:00 off the disk. I suspect in several hours the dust will be so spread out we will not be able to image it when what is left emerges to the lower left of the Sun's occulted disk in four hours.
Photographer's website:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/80860174301
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