NASA/ESA SOHO & NASA SDO Comet Meets Sun, October 1, 2011 

A comet discovered on Friday September 30, 2011 by an amateur astronomer disintegrated on Saturday October 1, 2011 when it plunged into the Sun.

The Corongraph of NASA/ESA's SOHO captured the last few hours of the comet.

Very shortly after the comet dove into the Sun a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) exploded. As of current solar scientists do not believe that a comet can trigger a Coronal Mass Ejection - however, the question of if a comet could cause a magnetic instability on the Sun remains and is being studied.

On July 6, 2011 the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observed a sungrazing comet and it appeared to interact with the plasma and magnetic field as it fell apart.

The first two segments in this video are from October 1, 2011 and were observed by NASA/ESA's SOHO spacecraft. The last two segments were captured by NASA's SDO on July 5, 2011.

Credit: NASA/ESA SOHO and NASA SDO