Comet Lovejoy Travels Through the Sun

[Scruce]

Astronomers fully expected Comet Lovejoy to meet a fiery death – and with good reason. After all, it was about to fly through the Sun’s atmosphere where temperatures reach a staggering 1.1millionC.
But this week stargazers were astonished when the 660-foot-wide icy rock disappeared around the back side of the sun, coming within 87,000 miles of its surface, and emerged triumphantly out the other side.
This was the comet that lived.
What’s more, Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the great escape on camera.

Lovejoy emerges from the clutches of the Sun and was spotted escaping by Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory.​

Lovejoy was only discovered on November 27 this year and was named after the amateur Australian astronomer who spotted it, Terry Lovejoy.
It is classed as a ‘Kreutz sungrazer’, which is a class of comet whose orbit comes very close to the Sun.
They are named after the 19th-century German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz, who figured out that they are actually the remains of one huge comet that broke apart.
Soon after Lovejoy was found three separate space agencies excitedly began tracking its trajectory – Nasa, the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Its fate was quickly marked as doomed because it would rush headlong into the Sun’s hellish corona.

Writing on the Sungrazing Comets website, Naval Research Laboratory scientist Karl Battams said: ‘We have here an exceptionally rare opportunity to observe the complete vaporization of a relatively large comet, and we have approximately 18 instruments on five different satellites that are trying to do just that.’
However, Lovejoy had other ideas and in a brief, but very clear, clip can be seen zooming away to safety from the Sun’s fiery clutches.
Robert Massey, from the Royal Astronomical Society, was stunned by Lovejoy's close encounter.

‘It was an extraordinary event. Lovejoy was incredibly close to the Sun, closer to the Sun than the Earth is to the Moon.
‘And it’s certainly a pretty rare event. The Solar Heliospheric Observatory [Note: the video is from the Solar Dynamics Observatory] has seen many examples of comets being destroyed as they approached the Sun and there was a great deal of interest in this because there was an expectation of spectacular debris.
‘I suppose if something is big and tough enough it will survive. This event tells us that the comet was rather more robust than expected. Doubtless it had a very rough ride though!’
Mr Massey explained that comets have probably survived skirmishes with the Sun before, but we just haven’t been able to see them.

Article: (Daily Mail)

First visual of Comet Lovejoy (NASA SDO):

Lovejoy's Journey around the Sun (NASA SDO):

 

[Kaito]

This can only mean one thing: Newton was wrong all along! There must be something else going on here! Gravity is a myth! This comet must be made of some alien material that can survive extreme temperatures! We must send a lander on it and discover this valuable material!

 

[Yoda]

This can only mean one thing: Newton was wrong all along! There must be something else going on here! Gravity is a myth! This comet must be made of some alien material that can survive extreme temperatures! We must send a lander on it and discover this valuable material!

Yeah, have to agree ; it's either a alien spaceship or it's simply because it's nucleus contained more solid rock than expected.

 

[Izack]

Awesome, a hot comet. :hotcool:

 

[Hielor]

Fake, look at the video--the comet moves but the surface of the sun doesn't change at all. Everyone knows that the sun is a boiling mess.

(there might be sarcasm in this post)

 

[Ark]

That is badass.

Though, I was expecting more from a topic title that claims it flew THROUGH the sun. :lol:

 

[iamwearingpants]

A very excellent name indeed

 

[Eli13]

 

[PhantomCruiser]

I thought if something were to slingshot past the sun like that it was supposed to go backwards through time? I saw in a movie...

 

[Izack]

I thought if something were to slingshot past the sun like that it was supposed to go backwards through time? I saw in a movie...

The comet must have travelled back through time, disguised itself like a hippie, saved some whales, casually invented transparent aluminum and then done another slingshot to return to our time! :O

 

[Wonderer]

"The adventures of Lovejoy the hot comet, which travels through time disguised as a hippy!" Would totally watch that.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

:rofl:
Funny, too much LDS in the 60's.

 

[Eli13]

:rofl:
Funny, too much LDS in the 60's.

 

[insane_alien]

ablation heat shielding IS remarkable effective.

I'm more surprised that it survived the drag from the tenuous atmosphere of the sun at that altitude.

 

[RisingFury]

I'm more surprised that it survived the drag from the tenuous atmosphere of the sun at that altitude.

I'm not. The corona is incredibly thin.

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://www.space.com/14031-spectacular-comet-photo-astronaut-space.html

Spectacular Photos: Astronaut Sees Dazzling Comet From Space Station

The amazing images show comet Lovejoy, which survived a trip through the sun's atmosphere last week. They were snapped by veteran NASA astronaut Daniel Burbank, who is currently commander of the International Space Station.

And even for a seasoned spaceflyer, the sight was amazing to behold.

 

[jedidia]

So... do they already have estimates of how much mass the comet lost during this little stunt, or do they have to observe the future trajectory more closely for that?

Also, the gravity gradient at that distance is frickin' HUGE. I don't know what surprises me more, that it didn't burn up or that it didn't get torn apart by tidal forces.

 

[Scruce]

Space Station Commander Captures Unprecedented View of Comet (ReelNASA):

International Space Station Commander Dan Burbank captured spectacular imagery of Comet Lovejoy as seen from about 240 miles above the Earth's horizon on Wednesday, Dec. 21.

Today Burbank described seeing the comet two nights ago as "the most amazing thing I have ever seen in space," in an interview with WDIV-TV in Detroit. Last night he captured hundreds of still images of the comet.

More images available in the International Space Station image gallery:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/multimedia/gallery/index.html

 

[orb]

Universe Today: How Did Comet Lovejoy Survive Its Trip Around The Sun?:

{...}

How did a loosely-packed ball of ice and rock manage to withstand such a close pass through the Sun’s blazing corona, when all expectations were that it would disintegrate and fizzle away? A few researchers from Germany have an idea.

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and the Braunschweig University of Technology have hypothesized that Comet Lovejoy managed to hold itself together through the very process that, to most people, defines a comet: the outgassing of sublimated icy material.

As a comet near the Sun, the increased heating from solar radiation causes the frozen materials within the nucleus to sublimate — go directly and suddenly from solid to gas, skipping the liquid middle stage — and, in doing so, burst through the surface of the comet and create the long, hazy reflective tail that is so often associated with them.

In the case of Lovejoy, which was on a direct path toward the Sun, the sublimation itself may have provided enough outward force across its surface to literally keep it together, according to the team’s research.

“The reaction force caused by the strong outgassing (sublimation) of the nucleus near the Sun acts to keep the nucleus together and to overcome the tidal disruption,” the paper claims.

{...}

 

[Rtyh-12]

Comet Lovejoy Travels Through the Sun... at a distance of 140,000 kilometers. That's still very impressive, don't get me wrong, but it's not at all 'through' the Sun.

The way they put it, it sounds as if the comet travelled tens of thousands of kilometers through almost unimaginable densities.