Comet Lovejoy seen by SOHO

Comet Lovejoy is the bright streak at the bottom of this animation, taken by SOHO’s Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) C3 instrument. SOHO's LASCO instrument is a coronagraph. It blocks out the light from the Sun's disc, creating an artificial eclipse. With the central glare removed, fainter objects closer to the Sun can be seen clearly by the instrument.