While the world was busy admiring NASA’s Artemis II astronauts, a group of astronomers had divided their attention to a comet which recently dove right into the Sun and met its end. The comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS), which was supposed to reach perihelion i.e. closest point to the Sun on April 4 has been destroyed, and several NASA spacecraft have collected visual proof.
One such visual came from the NASA-ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory or SOHO. This observatory used its coronagraph instrument to block out the Sun with a disk to reveal relatively faint features and objects including comet MAPS.
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This close-up coronagraph view from NASA/ESA’s SOHO spacecraft shows comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) approaching the Sun on April 4.
After the comet passes behind the disk, only a cloud of dust emerges. pic.twitter.com/PbkzqPnZ5F
— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) April 16, 2026
According to NASA, SOHO saw the comet approach the Sun seemingly intact but it disappeared soon and a cloud of dust emerged from the other side of the disk a few hours later.
Other missions like the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) also observed the comet from different angles before it met its demise.
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A wider view of the same event.
From SOHO’s wide coronagraph, we see a clearer view of the dust cloud emerging after the flyby. It looks like comet MAPS dove straight into the Sun… but another spacecraft’s view tells a different story. pic.twitter.com/yj2LNUR66Y
— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) April 16, 2026
Karl Battams, the principal investigator for SOHO’s coronagraph, said in a statement that the comet was destroyed “several hours before its closest approach to the Sun.”
Comet MAPS was the first comet to be discovered this year on January 13. It was found by amateur astronomers Alain Maury, Georges Attard, Daniel Parrott, and Florian Signoret using a telescope in Chile and the comet’s name is an acronym of their last names.
This comet, belonging to the Kreutz group, likely originated from a larger comet which broke apart many hundred years ago. All of these comets, NASA says, have similar orbits that take them very close to the Sun.
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