Comet Ikeya-Seki

Comet Ikeya-Seki, long-period comet that is one of a group of sungrazing comets, known as the Kreutz group, having very similar orbits and including the Great Comet of 1882. Comet Ikeya-Seki was discovered on September 18, 1965, by two Japanese amateur astronomers, Ikeya Kaoru and Seki Tsutomu. Moving in a highly inclined retrograde orbit, the comet made its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) on October 21, 1965, at a distance of 1.67 solar radius, or only 466,000 km (290,000 miles), above the Sun’s photosphere (visible surface). The comet was then bright enough to be seen with the naked eye in daylight. Like the similarly spectacular Great Comet of 1882, it fragmented owing to tidal forces induced by its proximity to the Sun. Ikeya-Seki gave astronomers their first chance since 1882 to study a bright comet under such conditions with modern instruments.

Between 1979 and 1983 the Solwind spacecraft discovered six smaller comets in orbits very similar to the Kreutz group. Those comets did not survive perihelion passage. Subsequent Sun-observing spacecraft have now discovered over 2,000 such small Kreutz-group comets, estimated to be 6–60 metres (about 20–200 feet) in diameter. Those small comets usually do not survive perihelion passage. It is suggested that the Kreutz group of Sun-grazing comets to which Ikeya-Seki belonged represents the remnants of a single larger comet that also was fragmented by solar tides after one or more perihelion passages in the past. Nine major sungrazers were seen from 1843 to 2011.