Comet Impacts Sun (1 of 2) (2010.01.03) [720p]

The SOHO spacecraft captured the arcing orbit of a sungrazing comet as it approached the Sun (Jan. 3, 2010) and evaporated. The comet is believed to belong to the Kreutz family of comets that broke up from a much larger comet many hundreds of years ago. They are known to orbit close to the Sun. This comet was one of the brightest sungrazing comets that SOHO has observed in its 14 years of operation. SOHO's coronagraph instruments block out the Sun with an occulting disk; the white circle represents the size of the Sun. The comet was discovered on Jan. 2nd by Australian amateur astronomer Alan Watson, who was inspecting images obtained by STEREO-A's Heliospheric Imager on Dec. 30, 2009.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• SOHO spacecraft
• solar astronomy
• comet hits sun
• comet impacts sun

[pantokrator1988]

what is that thing nrea the right down corner ?? lol

[djxatlanta]

One of the planets from our solar system. They pop into view of the spacecraft's cameras every now and then as they orbit the sun.

[tetekofa]

stange that there is no impact ejection, is it possible that the object was captured into orbit? something is a going on over at NASA.

[djxatlanta]

All comets are already in orbit around the sun's center of mass, but sometimes the orbit is so tight that its closest point to the sun's center of mass is actually below the surface of the sun... when that happens, there's an impact. Most of the time, we won't see an impact explosion because the comet completely evaporates away or is broken apart by gravitational forces -- it's like dropping a small rock into the ocean from a mile above the water -- you won't really see the splash or the waves!

[Djelomou]

what are those huge objects around the sun lately...Soho is reall picking up strange things...

[djxatlanta]

@Djelomou - SOHO picks up nothing unusual... the large streaks pointing away from the sun are streamers of hot gas in the corona, the sun's outer atmosphere. They're too faint to be seen unless you block out the sun (which is why the center of the image is dark). Other objects you might see in the camera from time to time are other planets in the solar system as they cross the field of view or comets as they approach the sun.

[djxatlanta]

Comets come into the inner solar system all the time, and eventually a lot of them happen to come into the field of view of SOHO's cameras. As of 2008, SOHO had discovered 1500 brand new comets... but not all of them survive their trip around the sun. And all the other strange looking artifacts you see from time to time? Planets -- but they're so bright that they overwhelm the detector, causing horizontal banding effects.