Comet C/2001 C2

Comet C/2001 C2 (originally designated SOHO-294) was discovered in LASCO C3 images on 6 February 2001.

The comet has been confirmed as a member of the Kreutz family of Sun-grazing comets. These comets are believed to be fragments of a parent body which was torn apart some time in the distant past. The image above is a composite of LASCO C2 data, the white light corona at 19:54 UT, and two UVCS observations of the comet itself. The UVCS images represent observations taken at 4.82 and 3.32 Solar Radii (Ro) over a time span of 19:11-20:02 UT and 20:11-20:45 UT respectively. Each UVCS image is a time sequence of several 200 second exposures as the comet passed across the entrance aperture. The UVCS comet images have been approximately positioned and scaled to the LASCO corona image. A wide, well-defined tail can be seen in the magnified version of the 4.82 Ro observation.