NRL’s Sungrazer Project Discovers 5000th Comet

Credit: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory | Date Taken: 03/25/2024
VIDEO: On March 25, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s (NRL) Sungrazer Project reached a remarkable milestone – the discovery of its 5,000th comet in data from the joint European Space Agency – National Aeronautics and Space Administration (ESA-NASA) Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). The 5,000th discovery was made by amateur astronomer Hanjie Tan from Guangzhou, China, who is currently an astronomy Ph.D. student in Prague, Czech Republic. SOHO-5000 is a small, short-period comet belonging to the so-called ‘Marsden group’ of comets, named for the late Dr. Brian Marsden who first recognized the group. The Marsden group was not known to exist until SOHO (LASCO) discovered it. (Credit: NRL/ESA/NASA)