~SPACE WEATHER UPDATE~ COMET LOVEJOY COMES IN WITH A COMPANION~
COMET LOVEJOY UPDATE: Matthew Knight of the Lowell Observatory and JHU-APL reports: "As of 16:30 UT on Dec. 15th, Comet Lovejoy has reached magnitude -3, possibly brighter. It is starting to saturate SOHO images even with narrow filters and shorter than normal exposure times." The comet is now brighter than Jupiter, but not quite as bright as Venus. If these developments continue apace, Comet Lovejoy could become visible to the naked eye in broad daylight before the end of Dec. 15th. See the news item below for further discussion of this possibility.
BIG COMET PLUNGES TOWARD THE SUN: Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) is diving into the sun and furiously vaporizing as it approaches the stellar surface. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is recording the kamikaze plunge:
SOHO Coronagraph: movie, latest image
"This is, without any doubt, the brightest sungrazing comet that SOHO has ever seen," says Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC.