SOHO, a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, was initially designed for solar physics research. However, its instruments proved effective in spotting comets, particularly “sungrazer” comets that orbit dangerously close to the sun. Before SOHO’s launch, only a couple dozen sungrazers were known to exist, but the mission has since discovered more than half of all known comets, including over 3,000 sungrazers.
Cosmic Milestones: SOHO’s 5,000th Comet Discovery Unveils the Power of Citizen Science
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