Comet's Collision with the Sun Captured

Space.com ^ | 05/24/2010 | Denise Chow

[Frenchtown Dan]

MIAMI – A comet plunging into the sun has been captured in 3-D as it hurtled along its kamikaze path for the first time, solar physicists announced Monday.

"We believe this is the first time a comet has been tracked in 3-D space this low down in the solar corona," said solar physicist Claire Raftery, a post-doctoral fellow at UC Berkeley.

Four post-doctoral researchers at UC Berkeley's Space Science's Laboratory used instruments aboard NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft to track the so-called sun-grazing comet as it approached the sun. They were able to estimate an approximate time and place of impact.

NASA's STEREO mission, which launched in 2006, is actually made up of twin spacecraft that orbit the sun, one ahead of the Earth and one behind it, and provide stereo views of the sun.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Frenchtown Dan.

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[KoRn]

[bigheadfred]

The comet's black box recorder captured the comet's last words: "Hey, watch this..."

Yeah. “Hey watch this, I’m only gonna do it once, so pay attention”.

Hey Civ... Hold muh beer...

[SunkenCiv]

[Rocky Squirrel voice] Again?

[bigheadfred]

Still

[ConservativeMind]

Can you elaborate on that??