comet's sudden appearance very close to the Sun and rapid subsequent decline in brightness both pointed to it being a sungrazing comet, and calculations of its orbit by Brian G. Marsden backed this suggestion. Marsden showed that the comet had reached perihelion on May 14, at a distance of just 1.35 million km, or 2 solar radii. The calculated orbit pinned down White-Ortiz-Bolelli as a member of the Kreutz Sungrazers, a group of comets which all originate from the fragmentation of one giant parent comet several hundred years ago, and which has provided some of the brightest comets ever seen. Kreutz Sungrazers all travel on similar orbits, which result in them being most easily visible from the southern hemisphere, between August and April. Kreutz sungrazers appearing between May and July may come and go unseen, as they approach from directly behind the Sun as seen from Earth; the only previous Kreutz Sungrazer seen during these months was the Eclipse Comet of 1882, which was only observed once, during a total solar eclipse. Before White–Ortiz–Bolelli, studies had divided the Kreutz Sungrazers into two sub-groups, originating from fragmentations at different orbits, but White-Ortiz-Bolelli seemed to be a member of neither. Studies showed that it probably broke away from the comet that spawned Subgroup II, before the main fragmentation, and it was classed as the first (and so far only) member of Subgroup IIa. Having an observation arc of only 14 days with a likely assumed near perihelion orbital eccentricity of 1.0 (epoch 1970-May-14), it is unknown if this parabolic comet will be ejected from the Solar System. References Roemer E. (1970), Comet Notes, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, v. 82, p. 928 External links https://web.archive.org/web/20050302071933/http://cometography.com/lcomets/1970k1.html Non-periodic comets Kreutz Sungrazers Astronomical objects discovered in 1970