Kreutz`s comets

Kreutz`s comets - family of comets, named after the astronomer Henry Kreytz, which was first revealed their relationship. It is believed that they are all part of a large comet, which collapsed a few centuries ago.

Some of them was a big comets, sometimes visible by day around the Sun. The last of these, introduced in 1965, the comet IKEA - Seki, perhaps, was one of the brightest comets last millennium. There is a high probability that in the coming decades will be open bright new member of this family.

Early family comets were discovered by the naked eye. Since launch the satellite SOHO in 1995, discovered several hundred of the smaller members of the family, some of which reach only a few meters in diameter. All of them are completely destroyed when approaching the Sun. SOHO satellite imagery available via the Internet, and comets are open, mostly amateur astronomers.