A comet got really close to the Sun and completely freaked out

The comet 323P/SOHO was discovered in 1999, and has a fire-and-ice orbit: On its profoundly elliptical 4-year orbit around the Sun, it goes out nearly to the orbit of Jupiter, but then falls back down to just a hair over 5 million kilometers from the Sun’s broiling surface. If you were standing on the comet at that point you’d have to hold up both hands to block the Sun, and it would feel like staring down a blast furnace.