SOHO had a ring-side seat to watch as a sun-grazing comet swept by the Sun on June 8, 2007. With its tail stretching far out behind it, it was one of the brightest sun-grazers that we have seen. This one belongs to the Kreutz family of comets, thought to belong to a much larger comet that broke up some 2,000 years ago These groups are the result of a much larger comet that broke up some 2,000 years ago during its perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) passage. By Kreutz standards, this one is quite bright, since they are often very small! This comet was discovered by Shihong Yuan. So far SOHO has observed over 1,300 comets.
