Goodbye Comet MAPS

From EarthSky: We just watched a comet die. Comet MAPS (C/2026 A1) plunged through the sun’s atmosphere only 160,000 km (99,000 mi) above the surface. It went in as a comet. What came out the other side was a cloud of dust. You can see the video from the LASCO C2 coronagraph here.

So, it looks like there will not be an Easter comet this year. Discovered last January, MAPS set the record as the most distant sungrazer ever observed at the time. There was genuine hope it was large enough to survive perihelion, perhaps even becoming visible in broad daylight. But the sun had other ideas.