Comet Lovejoy Diving into the Sun

[Kathryn41 3,205]

http://spaceweather.com

BIG COMET PLUNGES TOWARD THE SUN: Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) is diving into the sun and furiously vaporizing as it approaches the stellar surface. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is recording the kamikaze plunge:

"This is, without any doubt, the brightest sungrazing comet that SOHO has ever seen," says comet researcher Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC.

The comet's nucleus, thought to be twice as wide as a football field, will skim approximately 140,000 km (1.2 solar radii) above the solar surface on Dec. 15/16. At such close range, solar heating will almost certainly destroy the comet's icy core, creating a cloud of vapor and comet dust that will reflect lots of sunlight.

"If Comet Lovejoy gets as bright as magnitude -4 or -5, there is a tiny but non-zero chance that it could become visible in the sky next to the sun," says Battams.

Indeed, something similar happened to Comet McNaught in January 2007 when it was visible in broad daylight: gallery. Standing in the shadow of a tall building to block the sun allowed the comet to be seen in blue sky nearby.

"Comet Lovejoy will be reaching perihelion (closest approach to the sun) right around sunset on Dec. 15th for people in the US East, Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones," continues Battams. "Be alert for the comet to the left of the sun at that time." Caution: Do not look at or near the sun through unfiltered optics; focused sunlight can seriously damage your eyes.

Discovered on Dec. 2nd by amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy of Australia, the comet is an unusually large member of the Kreutz family. Kreutz sungrazers are fragments of a single giant comet (probably the Great Comet of 1106) that broke apart back in the 12th century. SOHO sees one plunging into the sun every few days, but most are small, no more than 10 meters wide. Comet Lovejoy is at least ten times larger than usual.

[CanadaLove 16]

*snickers* article was written before the comet actually passed through the corona - it survived, but lost its tail!

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Actually, the tail is returning as well. Comet Lovejoy is surprising astronomers by her totally unprecedented behaviour:

http://spaceweather.com/

COMET LOVEJOY IN THE MORNING: Noted astronomer John Bortle urges observers (especially in the southern hemisphere) to "begin searching for Comet Lovejoy's bright tail projecting up out of the morning twilight beginning at dawn. The tails of some of the

major sungrazing comets have been extraordinarily bright. Comet Lovejoy's apparition has been so bizarre up to this point that it is difficult to anticipate just what might happen next ... [including] the exact sort of tail it might unfurl in the morning sky."

UPDATE: This morning in New Zealand, Minoru Yoneto photographed the ghostly tail of Comet Lovejoy shining through the twilight:

"I couldn't see the comet with my naked eye, but a 1.3 sec exposure with my Canon Kiss X2 digital camera revealed Lovejoy's long tail."

In the clearer skies of Devonport, Tasmania, amateur astronomer Peter Sayers did see the tail with his unaided eyes--"but just barely," he says. "The tail was just naked-eye and perhaps a degree long in our Tasmanian summer early morning twilight." [

image]

The visibility of the tail could improve in the days ahead as the comet moves away from the sun and the background sky darkens accordingly. Early-rising sky watchers should be alert for this rare apparition. [

finder chart]

[Kathryn41 3,205]

And Lovejoy is now very bright in the Southern hemisphere with a remarkable tail .

Today's Space Weather also includes a video shot from the orbiting space station showing Lovejoy emerging from the Earth's horizon just before Dawn.

"Space Weather News for Dec. 23, 2011 http://spaceweather.com

Astronauts onboard the International Space Station have seen sungrazing Comet Lovejoy from Earth orbit. ISS commander Dan Burbank describes the comet's green-glowing tail as "the most amazing thing I have ever seen in space." Video from the ISS and updated images from Earth are highlighted on today's edition of Spaceweather.com.

[CanadaLove 16]

Lovely photo above.. thanks for the linkages!