Comet MAPS, a highly anticipated "sungrazer" comet, was ripped apart by the sun during a superclose "death dive" with our home star. The SOHO satellite captured the event, which transformed the comet into a "headless wonder" with no body, just a cloud of debris. The comet was a member of the Kreutz sungrazers, which pass extremely close around the sun. For months, experts had been predicting how bright the comet might become if it survived its solar slingshot. However, it did not survive its solar flyby and was destroyed by the intense thermal stress placed on its icy shell, or nucleus, and high gravitational forces on the comet as it traveled at around 1 million mph (1.6 million km/h).