Can space rocks hit the Sun?
Yes. Some comets dive straight into the Sun or are destroyed by its heat. Spacecraft watching the Sun have seen thousands of these sungrazing comets.
The Sun is the biggest target in the Solar System, so some space rocks and comets do crash into it or are destroyed close to it.
Sungrazing comets. Some comets travel on paths that bring them extremely close to the Sun. They are called sungrazers. As they get close, the Sun's tremendous heat makes their ice boil away, and its gravity can tear them apart. Many vanish completely. Some actually plunge into the Sun's glowing outer layers.
Spacecraft watching. A spacecraft called SOHO, launched in 1995 to study the Sun, has cameras that block out the Sun's bright disc so the area around it can be seen. It has discovered more than 5,000 comets, most of them small sungrazers on their final journeys. Many were spotted by amateur astronomers looking through SOHO's pictures online.
What happens to the Sun? Nothing much! The Sun is so huge that comets and asteroids make no difference to it. It is like dropping a grain of sand into a bonfire.
Asteroids too. Some asteroids also end their lives by falling into the Sun. Scientists think that, over millions of years, many near-Earth asteroids eventually fall into the Sun, are thrown out of the Solar System or hit a planet.
Survivors. A few sungrazing comets survive close passes and become beautiful, bright sights in our sky.