96P sungrazer family is a small group of sungrazing comets, originating from 96P/Macholz comet. All comets belonging to this group are discovered by NASA/ESA SOHO (SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory) satellite. It contains three subgroups: Marsden, Kracht and Kracht II.
96P type is the rarest among all objects recorded by SOHO – just 3% of all belong to this group.[1]
| FREQUENCY | 1.5% | 1.1% | 0.3% | 2.9% |
It's suggested that this group comes from fragments detached from Macholz comet about 800 to 1,200 years ago. The orbit is very similar to the parent body with slightly different gravitational contacts with Jupiter and lower perihelion distance as well as inclination.
Marsden subgroup was discovered by British astronomer, Brian G. Marsden in early 2000s.[3] Kracht I and II were discovered by Rainer Kracht in 2002 after analysing orbits and finding similarities between a couple of comets.[4] [5]
These comets show up in average ~6 years intervals - approximate orbital period. They're often observed in clusters counting 2 or more objects, showing up within few days after each other. Brightness peak typically occurs few hours after perihelion and ranges 7-8 magnitude – brightest ones reach 5 mag.
During passage near Sun, fragmentation takes place, creating smaller objects. 96P complex will likely extinct in near future.
Size range is not well known, they're probably larger than Kreutz comets, which are usually few tens of meters wide.