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sundry is in comic amazes astronomy
presented by science at nasa
note two comments stay away from the sun
on july fifth a fleet of nasa and european space craft watched what
happened when an icy comets got a little too close
a son grazing comet swooped closer to the surface of the sun then we've ever
seen before says solar physicists kinkos no of the goddard space flight center
and now the solar system has one last thirty snowball
the solar and helios phiri conservatory side first
using an opaque disc to block the sun's claire
so who recorded the early stages of the comet staff
the comic grow long bright tail as icy material units nucleus furiously
vaporized in the face of intense solar heating
by the time it happened behind the sun blocking desk
the comet have become one of the brightest of the soho era
since soho was launched in nineteen ninety-six the observatory has recorded
more than two thousand comments says carl bottoms of the naval research lab
in washington d_c_
i put this one in the top ten of all time
masses twin stereo probes also monitor the comets approach
with three points of view
soho plus terry away and stereo b
researchers could get it could fix of the comments orbit
it was definitely a crate son grazer says bottoms
hurt sunbathers are fragments when the break-up of a single giant comet many
centuries ago
they get their name from nineteen th century german astronomer heinrich
rights who studied them in detail
several crates fragments passed by the sun in disintegrate everyday
most measuring less than a few meters across
are too small to see
but occasionally a big fragment like this one attracts attention
the best view of all came from nasa solar dynamics observatory or s_c_o_ for
short
the crooks debris stream happen to be passing right across the solar desk as
seen from s_ t_ o_ notes params
that was fortuitous for sure
as dealers high-resolution cameras recorded the comets passage through the
sun's atmosphere says personal b_s_t_ o project scientist
we were able to see the comedy pariahs before our very eyes
the first time we've ever seen such a thing
researchers are studying the video in detail to learn more about the doomed
comet
how massive was it
what caused the comet to go so brightly
in some parts of the movie it appeared to be even brighter than the fiery son
behind
and was the calmest tail actually wedding
stay tuned for answers to these and other comic questions as the analysis
continues
a case can be found at science dot nasa dot co