Comet MAPS faces a make-or-break moment as it dives toward the sun on April 4 — could it shine in the daytime sky?

We are now in the home stretch in the nearly four-month saga of Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS). This is the make-or-break week for this object as it heads for its long-awaited rendezvous with the sun this weekend..

The comet was discovered on Jan. 13, 2026, by a team of four amateur astronomers. "MAPS" is an acronym using the first letters of the surnames of the discoverers: Alain Maury, Georges Attard, Daniel Parrott, and Florian Signoret. They found the comet using a remotely operated 11-inch telescope at the AMACS1 observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert. What makes this discovery special is that Comet MAPS belongs to a special class of comets known as Kreutz sungrazers.

All Kreutz sungrazers are named after the 19th-century German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz, who first showed that such comets are related. The progenitor of this family is thought to be the fragmentation of a large sungrazing comet described by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle in 371 BC. This has spawned subsequent breakups, most notably in 1106 AD. A recent paper suggests that Comet MAPS is a fragment of a bright comet that was described by the historian Ammianus Marcellinus in 363 AD. But that comet may itself have been an original remnant that broke off from Aristotle's Comet.

A date with destiny

Saturday, April 4, is the day of Comet MAPS perihelion — when it will make its closest approach to the sun. Based on updated orbital elements published on the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT) Circular#5675, Comet MAPS will pass within 101,100 miles (162,700 km) above the sun's surface (the photosphere) at 10:24 a.m. EDT (1424 GMT, 7:24 a.m. PDT). The comet will then be in the midst of completing a hairpin-curved path around the sun, racing at a speed of 322 miles (518 km) per second.

Source: www.space.com

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