{"id":160712,"date":"2022-06-14T15:29:17","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T01:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=160712"},"modified":"2022-06-14T15:29:17","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T01:29:17","slug":"maunakea-telescopes-near-sun-comet-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/06\/14\/maunakea-telescopes-near-sun-comet-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Maunakea telescopes capture near-Sun comet roasting to death"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"comet\"
Subaru Telescope\/CFHT<\/abbr>\/Man-To Hui<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Astronomers using world-leading telescopes, including several observatories on Maunakea and in space, have captured images of a periodic rocky near-Sun comet breaking apart. It marked the first time, 323P\/SOHO<\/abbr>, a known comet, was detected by a ground-based telescope and was caught in the act of disintegrating, which could help explain the scarcity of the near-Sun population of periodic comets and asteroids.<\/p>\n

To better understand these bodies, a group of international researchers including Man-To Hui<\/strong>, a former University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute for Astronomy<\/a> (IfA<\/abbr>) researcher, and IfA<\/abbr> Astronomer David Tholen<\/strong>, observed 323P\/SOHO<\/abbr> with multiple telescopes on Maunakea including the Subaru Telescope<\/a>, Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope<\/a> (CFHT<\/abbr>) and Gemini North<\/a>, and Lowell Discovery Telescope<\/a> in Arizona and Hubble Space Telescope<\/a>.<\/p>\n