A large comet has exploded as it passed through the Sun’s atmosphere, and the evidence is in the images. In the footage, the object—Comet MAPS, also known as C/2026 A1—doesn’t just fade; it falls apart.
Misryoum newsroom reported that the comet was seen flying toward the Sun on April 4 by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO. SOHO is an international project between the ESA and NASA that has been ongoing for more than 30 years, and it’s built for one job in particular: watching what happens right around the bright solar glare. The spacecraft takes images of the space around the Sun using a “coronagraph,” a specialized telescope attachment that blocks out the light coming directly from the Sun—basically creating an artificial eclipse.
In the stunning new footage, Comet MAPS is shown flying into the Sun’s atmosphere on a course that takes it to within just 99,000 miles of the star’s surface. There’s a moment that really lands: the comet entered the blind spot in the center of the coronagraph intact, and then—only after it comes out from the other side—there’s just a shower of debris. Misryoum editorial desk noted a sudden brightening too, which may have been the comet’s nucleus exploding due to thermal stress, before the dust cloud emerges.
That dust cloud isn’t a simple puff, either. The footage also shows it structured into a spray of narrow bands called “striae”—a common feature that results from high levels of material release from comets. It’s the sort of detail you notice and then you can’t quite stop noticing, because it makes the breakup feel oddly organized.
Comet MAPS was only discovered in January of this year, and while it was too far to confirm its size, experts believed it may have been big enough to eventually be seen in broad daylight. Misryoum analysis indicates earlier expectations were higher: experts had believed that the comet might pass within 500,000 miles from the sun’s surface, and emerge with a bright shining tail visible from earth.
But later observations revealed it was in fact smaller than initially though, making it more at risk of being destroyed in its close pass to the sun. It was also traveling closer to the Sun than initial estimates had predicted. Some comets that pass this close to the Sun become dramatically brighter and visible to the naked eye—however, this wasn’t the case for MAPS. Actually, watching the idea of “could be bright” turn into “debris shower” is… not comforting, even if it’s what the physics would suggest.
There is hope, however, that Comet PanSTARRS, also known as Comet C/2025 R3, could achieve what MAPS didn’t. The long-period comet is expected to peak in late April, around 46 million miles from the sun, and will make its closest approach to Earth on April 27 when it will be at its brightest. Misryoum newsroom reported it’s unclear yet whether Comet PanSTARRS will be visible only via binoculars, or whether stargazers will be able to see the comet unaided in the night sky—so, if you’re planning a watch, you might want to keep expectations flexible. (Last time I tried something like this, I remember the air smelled faintly like wet pavement and metal, like night had weight.) And then, well, the sky will do what it does.
