A comet just discovered by NASA’s STEREO-Ahead spacecraft is plunging toward the sun. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has an excellent view of the ongoing encounter.

Will the icy visitor survive? The drama will play itself out in the hours ahead.

This kamikaze comet is probably a member of the Kreutz sungrazer family. Named after a 19th century German astronomer who studied them in detail, Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a giant comet at least 2000 years ago. Several of these fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate every day. Most are too small to see. Today’s fragment is a big exception.

Credit: The comet was found on Jan. 2nd by Australian amateur astronomer Alan Watson, who was inspecting images obtained by STEREO-A’s Heliospheric Imager on Dec. 30, 2009.

Source: Spaceweather.com