On Tuesday, January 13, 2026, object C/2026 A1 was quickly identified as a member of the Kreutz family of sungrazing comets. The Kreutz class of comets are real-time experimental stress tests that can reveal the secrets of our Sun.
Perihelion—closest approach to the Sun—is Saturday, April 4, 2026. The comet will pass just a few hundred-thousand kilometres above the solar surface. At such distances, survival is never guaranteed.
The question is not only how bright the comet might appear in the sky—perhaps visible in broad daylight before its flyby of the Sun?—but what we’ll learn from its journey into the solar plasma environment of extraordinary electrodynamic intensity.
Author and independent researcher David Drew will revisit forthwith to compare these predictions with actual post-perihelion observations of Comet C/2026 A1.
