SOHO/SWAN observations of comets with small perihelia: C/2002 V1 (NEAT), C/2002 X5 (Kudo-Fujikawa), 2006 P1 (McNaught) and 96P/Machholz 1

► We present SOHO/SWAN hydrogen Lyman-α coma images of four comets with small perihelia. ► Calculated water production rates covered wide ranges of heliocentric distances. ► All four comets had heliocentric distance power laws with exponents between −2 and −2.4. ► Comet 96P/Machholz 1 may not be a Jupiter Family Comet from the Kuiper Belt.