An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A comet that passes extremely close to the Sun’s → surface, in some cases within a few thousand kilometres of the Sun’s surface.
The Great Comet of 1965, Ikeya-Seki, was a member of the sun-grazer family, coming within about 650,000 km of the Sun’s surface. Passing so close to the Sun, sun-grazers are subjected to destructive → tidal forces along with intense solar heat which can completely evaporate them during such a → close approach.

See also: → Sun; → grazer.