From TheBestLinks.com
A sun-grazing comet is a comet that passes extremely close to the sun at perihelion - sometimes within a few thousand kilometres of the sun's surface. The most famous sungrazers are the Kreutz sungrazers, which all originate from one giant comet which broke up into many smaller comets during its first passage through the inner solar system. An extremely bright comet seen in 1106 is a likely candidate for this parent comet.
The Great Comets of 1843 and 1882, and Comet Ikeya-Seki in 1965 were all fragments of the original comet. Each of these three was briefly bright enough to be visible in the daytime sky, next to the sun, outshining even the full moon.
Since the launch of the SOHO satellite in 1995, hundreds of tiny Kreutz Sungrazers have been discovered, many of which have actually plunged into the sun or been destroyed completely during their perihelion passage. The Kreutz family of comets is apparently much larger than previously suspected. It will only be a matter of time before another large member of the group passes through the inner solar system and gives a display to rival the great Kreutz comets of the past.
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