The story of the sungrazers
Unless there is an unexpected bright discovery (fingers crossed!), the only comet likely to be 10th-magnitude or brighter and visible from southern latitudes during May and June is the intrinsically bright but distant C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS). Rising in the late evening at the beginning of May, the comet will be located in Aquila, close to the boundary of Hercules and Ophiuchus, returning to the latter constellation during the second week of the month and remaining within its boundaries for the rest of the period. It is expected to brighten from around magnitude 10 to 8.5 or thereabouts during this time.
The sungrazers
It seems hard to believe, but last summer marked, the most recent major Kreutz sungrazer comet to grace our skies. It seems only fitting then that the past year has seen the appearance of several scientific papers that have taken a fresh look at this fascinating comet family. In particular, a paper by Julio Fernandez et al analysed the evolution of the motion of the precursor object while Zdenek Sekanina published two papers presenting an updated model of the evolution and structure of the fragments following the precursor’s disruption.
