Sundiving Comet Lovejoy Survived its Close Encounter with the Sun (Dec 16th, 2011)..

COMET LOVEJOY SURVIVES: Incredibly, sungrazing Comet Lovejoy appears to have survived its close encounter with the sun. Lovejoy flew only 140,000 km over the stellar surface during the early hours of Dec. 16th. http://spaceweather.com

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• comet
• lovejoy
• sundiving
• sungrazer
• Space
• solar
• system
• perihelion
• earth
• Outer Space

[Stallion1964]

How does a Comet that is made up mostly of ice survive such a close encounter with the Sun? Am i missing something here?

[Skyywatcher88]

@Stallion1964 Puzzling isn't it? Truely a comet of wonders! And there is more where that one came from. Could even be bigger ones in the offering.

[alean68]

Fake

[Skyywatcher88]

@alean68 Your ass!

[Skyywatcher88]

Small cool comet named "Lovejoy" sundiving toward a giant hot sun, almost no chance of the comet surviving the encounter, but yet love and joy prevailed amazingly in the right proportions...An understanding one may need going into 2012...What a wonderful sign to end the year...Merry Christmas...Peace!

[sssshhhh101]

How cool is it to turn on the computer and this is the first video I see? I might as well turn the computer back off because I'm not going to see anything more fantastic than this today!

Thanks

[xbert68]

I think most ppl don't grasp the scale of the sun it is a star. Our earth or even jupiter would be vaporized of they passed within a million miles of it, its ten thousand times the size of earth also the comet was going really fast through super heated coronal particles for hundreds of thousands of miles it wasn't made of ice.

[Kostly]

They said it was 600ft (200m) wide? LOL How big was it AFTER it was sent back on it's highly elliptical return path? LOL Looks as though it actually GAINED size after it got ejected back out.

[shogu666]

Error in matrix :p

[skyccxxiii]

@Stallion1964 , I hear ya. Amazingly we have yet to prove any gas-dust-ice theory when it comes to the comets. Every comet we have ever explored have turned out to be, well, like comet Temple for example. Hard surface of.... no 'dust-gas-ice'.

[mbslaade]

I have not only favorited this video, but have watched and shared it many times since you posted it. Definately one of your best!

[79902625]

@9Tehuti The gravity of the sun could changed its direction and orbited around the sun. Also, comets are not like asteroids, they are propelled by gas that is triggered when something very hot hits it.

That ice could be millions and millions of years old and i will be nearly as hard as diamond.

Well some say its a UFO, other an unexplained mystery. Lets be relieved that it did not hit us.

[9Tehuti]

5505 °C is said to be the temperature of the Sun at its surface. ice? yeah right. rock? yeah right. turning around the Sun? hmmmmmm. Something definitely doesnt seem quite right.