3000th comet discovered by Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)

The 3,000th comet was originally spotted in the data by Worachate Boonplod, of Samut Songkhram, Thailand. “I am very happy to be part of a great milestone for SOHO’s comet project,” said Boonplod. “I would like to thank SOHO, ESA and NASA for making this opportunity possible, including other fellow comet hunters who I have learned a lot from.”

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That many!

I’ve taken interest in the comet finding abilities of SOHO. It really irks me that when SOHO dies we will lose a lot. It can’t be long because SOHO is the second-oldest working telescope in space (Hubble is the oldest).

Admittedly, by far the largest number of SOHO comets are from a single group, the Kreutz-group. But some are from four other comet groups, the Meyer (~130 comets), Marsden (~50 comets), Kracht (~40 comets) and Kracht II (5 comets) groups. SOHO has found ~90 comets that are not associated with any group.