Hopes are High for a new Sun grazing Comet

C/2026 A1 (MAPS)

A new sun grazing comet could become quite bright! Sky watchers are excited about this newcomer heading toward the inner solar system, as it's already appeared large and visible at 18th magnitude even while still twice as far from the sun as Earth is. Although magnitude 18 is much too dim for unaided eyes, that level of brightness is impressive for a comet at such a distance.

This could be the most distant observation ever made of a comet like this—a suspected Kreutz sungrazer, belonging to a group of comets known for passing very close to the sun. The comet—now officially named C/2026 A1 (MAPS)—is traveling toward its closest approach to the sun, or perihelion, which will occur on April 4-5, 2026. Detecting it early indicates it’s probably fairly large, so there’s a chance it will get quite bright—even potentially easy to spot in our skies.

Early measurements estimate that the comet’s nucleus could be as much as 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide.

Can this sun grazing comet survive?

Comet C/2026 A1 MAPS will pass just 487,088 miles (783,892 km) from the sun, with the sun’s diameter at 865,370 miles (1,392,678 km).

At such close range, comets often disintegrate due to intense heat and the sun’s gravity, but if this one survives, it could shine brightly in our skies at dusk after its closest approach in early April.

There’s reason for optimism—comets like C/1965 S1 (Ikeya–Seki) and C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) survived even closer solar encounters and became extremely bright, with Ikeya–Seki reaching magnitude -10 and Lovejoy matching Venus at magnitude -3 or -4.