COMET LOVEJOY SURVIVES: Incredibly, sungrazing Comet Lovejoy
~SPACE WEATHER UPDATE~ COMET LOVEJOY SURVIVES~
COMET LOVEJOY SURVIVES: Incredibly, sungrazing Comet Lovejoy appears to have survived its close encounter with the sun. Lovejoy flew only 140,000 km over the stellar surface during the early hours of Dec. 16th. Experts expected the icy sundiver to be destroyed. Instead, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the comet emerging from perihelion (closest approach) at least partially intact:
Movie formats: 25 MB Quicktime, 800 kB m4v
SDO also recorded Comet Lovejoy's entry into the sun's atmosphere: movie.
Comet Lovejoy began the week as a chunk of dusty, rocky ice some 200 meters in diameter. No one can say how much of the comet's core remains intact or how long it will hang together after the searing heat of perihelion.