A rare sight during the solar eclipse

It’s hard to believe the biggest celestial event of the year, the total solar eclipse, was just a few days ago, but there was another event that took place while the moon crossed in front of the sun. A comet disintegrated as it passed the sun.

This happens every day, but this specific comet was photographed just before its disintegration during the total solar eclipse!

These comets disintegrating are not often observed from the ground, according to Astronomer Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab, but millions happened to be watching the skies during the eclipse and amateur astronomer, Lin Zixuan, was viewing it from New Hampshire.

The so called “sungrazer comets” appear to be from the Kreuts family – which are smaller comets from a larger one that broke up around 2,000 years ago.

The comet – named SOHO 5008 – ended up disintegrating right after Lin snapped the photo.