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Video: Close Call in the Corona
ScienceNOW ^ | 6 June 2013 | Sid Perkins

Posted on 06/09/2013 11:10:06 AM PDT by neverdem

Credit: Video courtesy of Cooper Downs

Deep inside the sun's atmosphere, temperatures reach millions of degrees—so hot that even the best-shielded spacecraft can't go there (even at night). But natural objects that pass exceptionally close to the sun do provide scientists opportunities to directly probe the solar corona. Enter sun-grazing comets, such as comet Lovejoy, which whizzed within 140,000 kilometers of the sun's surface in mid-December 2011 (as seen in the first 20 seconds of the video). When a comet is far from the sun, its tail acts like a weather vane in the solar wind (the torrent of charged particles that streams outward from the sun's upper atmosphere). But observations made from multiple angles by three different craft revealed that comet Lovejoy's tail waggled and wobbled in unexpected ways (see video, from 0:20 onward) as the object zipped through the deepest parts of the solar atmosphere. Those motions provide direct insight into the intense, highly variable magnetic fields close to the sun, the researchers report online today in Science. That, in turn, allows solar physicists to tweak their models of the corona and the processes that take place there, including how the solar wind forms and how it is accelerated to incredibly high speeds. Comet Lovejoy was the first sun-grazer known to survive its approach and reemerge from the corona, the researchers note. But alas, future sightings of this object probably aren't in the cards: Less than a week after the comet swooped past the sun, its icy nucleus shattered and disappeared, likely due to its brief but close call with extreme heat.

videos.


(Excerpt) Read more at news.sciencemag.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: astronomy; australia; catastrophism; comet; comet2014q2; cometlovejoy; greencomet; lovejoy; orion; physics; science
The video is at the source.
1 posted on 06/09/2013 11:10:06 AM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem
(even at night)

LOL. Gotta love those wacky scientists and their wry sense of humor.

2 posted on 06/09/2013 11:12:27 AM PDT by newheart (The worst thing the Left ever did was to convince the world it was not a religion.)
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To: newheart

Kind of like the age old question of “Does the light go out in the fridge when you close the door?” Blonde joke of traveling to the sun..........Duh, you go at night. Hello....


3 posted on 06/09/2013 11:18:41 AM PDT by rktman (BACKGROUND CHECKS? YOU FIRST mr. president(not that we'd get the truth!))
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To: newheart
comet Lovejoy, which whizzed within 140,000 kilometers of the sun's surface in mid-December 2011

Isn't gonna put out the fires (even at night) ....

4 posted on 06/09/2013 11:22:22 AM PDT by mikrofon (Science "humour" ;)
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To: El Gato; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Robert A. Cook, PE; lepton; LadyDoc; jb6; tiamat; PGalt; Dianna; ...
Artificial 'superatoms' for a new periodic table

Temporal cloak erases data from history

Flu spreads via airborne droplets - Hand washing goes only so far in retarding transmission In comment# 10 of this thread there are a few links about a small successful human, phase I trial of immunotherapy in multiple sclerosis.

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

5 posted on 06/09/2013 11:36:32 AM PDT by neverdem (Register pressure cookers! /s)
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To: brytlea; cripplecreek; decimon; bigheadfred; KoRn; Grammy; married21; steelyourfaith; Mmogamer; ...

Thanks neverdem. Extra to APoD members.


6 posted on 06/09/2013 11:40:04 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (McCain would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: 75thOVI; agrace; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AndrewC; aragorn; aristotleman; Avoiding_Sulla; ...

Thanks neverdem.
...observations made from multiple angles by three different craft revealed that comet Lovejoy's tail waggled and wobbled in unexpected ways (see video, from 0:20 onward) as the object zipped through the deepest parts of the solar atmosphere. Those motions provide direct insight into the intense, highly variable magnetic fields close to the sun, the researchers report online today in Science.



7 posted on 06/09/2013 11:40:08 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (McCain would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: mikrofon

Completely missed that one. LOL.


8 posted on 06/09/2013 11:44:32 AM PDT by newheart (The worst thing the Left ever did was to convince the world it was not a religion.)
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To: newheart

Later on in the intro, they also mention some things RE “waggling” ... methinks it may be intentional ;)


9 posted on 06/09/2013 11:50:32 AM PDT by mikrofon (Science!)
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To: neverdem

The beer was in danger? That was serious!


10 posted on 06/09/2013 12:11:01 PM PDT by count-your-change (you don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough)
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To: newheart

Yeah, that one had me scratching my head.


11 posted on 06/09/2013 1:49:25 PM PDT by jmacusa (Political correctness is cultural Marxism. I'm not a Marxist.)
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To: neverdem

Man, that comet had some balls.


12 posted on 06/09/2013 3:01:28 PM PDT by BobL (To us it's a game, to them it's personal - therefore they win.)
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