The solar system has one less comet.
The much-heralded Comet MAPS, proclaimed by some as "The Great Easter Comet," met its end this past Saturday (April 4). The comet apparently underwent a cataclysmic fragmentation just hours before it was to make its closest approach — called perihelion — to the sun. Such was not completely unexpected, for Comet MAPS was a Kreutz sungrazer, a type of comet that comes literally within a hairbreadth of the sun. They may all have evolved from the breakup of a usually large comet's close approach to the sun, perhaps a millennium ago. From this progenitor, countless fragments of different sizes have been circling the sun in similar orbits.
