---
title: "The Sun Just Killed the Fastest-Moving Object in the Solar System"
description: "The fastest moving object in our Solar System was first seen on August 1. A few days later, it met its doom when it passed too near the sun."
date: "2016-08-10"
modified: "2016-11-29"
authors:
  - name: "Andy Palma"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/andy-palma"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-sun-just-killed-the-fastest-moving-object-in-the-solar-system"
categories:
  - "Energy"
  - "Off-World"
  - "Renewable Energy"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Solar Power"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "comet"
  - "soho"
  - "solar system"
  - "sungrazer comet"
---

# The Sun Just Killed the Fastest-Moving Object in the Solar System

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Watch-the-Sun-absolutely-destroy-the-fastest-object-in-the-Solar-System.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Joy Ng\</em\>*

This week, the [Solar and Heliospheric Observatory](<https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/soho/index.html>) (SOHO) – a joint project of ESA and NASA established to investigate the sun’s activities – [captured footage](<http://www.space.com/33646-comet-dives-into-sun-at-over-350-miles-per-second-spacecraft-view-video.html>) of the final moments of a [sungrazer comet](<http://www.space.com/30315-sungrazing-comets-soho-sun-observatory-infographic.html>) as it hurled toward the sun at an incredible speed of 2.16 million kph (1.34 million mph).

Karl Battams, who operates the [Sungrazer Project comet program](<http://sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil/>), [tweeted about the incident](<https://twitter.com/SungrazerComets>) and stated that the comet was the fastest-moving object in our Solar System – traveling at more than 482 km (300 miles) per second when it was totally obliterated by the sun.

![Source: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Joy Ng](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sohosungrazersmall.gif>)
*Destruction of the sungrazer comet caught by SOHO. Source: ESA/NASA/SOHO/Joy Ng*

NASA [released a report](<http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2016/esa-nasa-s-soho-sees-bright-sungrazer-comet>) stating "this comet didn’t fall into the sun, but rather whipped around it – or at least, it would have if it had survived its journey," and was then destroyed by the intense forces near the sun, just like most sungrazing comets.