--- title: "Hey Kids, Wanna See a Giant Comet Smash Into the Sun?" description: "A massive chunk of comet was spotted crashing into our fiery Sun. And perhaps unsurprisingly, it doesn't look like the rocky body didn't make it out intact." date: "2022-08-11" modified: "2022-08-11" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/giant-comet-smash-into-sun" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" tags: - "comet" - "Sun" - "the digest" --- # Hey Kids, Wanna See a Giant Comet Smash Into the Sun? ![A massive chunk of comet was spotted crashing into our fiery Sun. And perhaps unsurprisingly, it doesn't look like the rocky body didn't make it out intact.]() *\Image: Helioviewer\* ## Cannonball Rest in pieces. On Sunday morning, a massive chunk of comet was spotted crashing into our fiery Sun — and unsurprisingly, video of the incident looks catastrophic for the ill-fated snowball. According [to *SpaceWeather.com*](), the Sun-diving incident was captured on camera by NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. In the clip, the cosmic snowball is seen charging towards the colossal star — but sadly, it's fair to say the comet disintegrated inside the ultra-hot star. "The doomed comet was almost certainly a 'Kreutz sungrazer,' a fragment from a giant comet that broke apart many centuries ago," astronomer Tony Phillips wrote for *SpaceWeather*."A swarm of these fragments orbits the sun, and every day at least one gets too close and disintegrates." https://twitter.com/drkstrong/status/1556220466594996226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1556220466594996226%7Ctwgr%5Ed86cc3d54400dfe6885bf2c9840b97934be70ec9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnet.com%2Fscience%2Fspace%2Fnasa-caught-a-sun-diving-comet-crashing-into-our-star%2F ## Irresistible Our Sun's intense gravitational pull is the likely cause of this comet's death dive. Like Earth, comets orbit the Sun — but if they get *too* close to the **star?** The gravitational pull can become too strong to resist, leading comets like our ill-fated friend here to get swallowed whole. As Phillips wrote for *SpaceWeather*, this actually happens all the time — although this particular comet was a bit bigger than your usual Sun-diving space snowball, so it grabbed a bit more attention. In any case: So long, good sir. **More on comets diving into their fiery doom:** [*Unfortunate Comet Flies Too Close to the Sun, Disintegrates and Becomes a Ghost*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()