Comet's Tail Not A Happy One
February 5th 2008 06:05
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NASA's twin spacecraft called STEREO recorded the first images ever taken so far of a collision between a solar "hurricane", called a coronal mass ejection (CME), and a comet. As you may recall late 2007 Comet 17P/Holmes did experience a "disconnection event"17P/ Holmes became suddenly brighter when approaching the Sun.
CMEs are large clouds of magnetised gas ejected into space by the sun. They are violent eruptions with masses upwards of a few billion tons traveling anywhere from 100 to 3,000 kilometers per second (62 to 1,864 miles/second).
The collision caused the complete detachment of the comet's tail plasma. NASA t released footage showing a violent encounter of high speed particles severing the comet’s tail. The spacecraft observed a CME hitting Comet Encke, which was travelling within the orbit of Mercury.a The spacecraft's shows a series of animated images of comet’s tail brightening as the CME sweeps by, and then being dragged away.
I have included this link showing the actual comet tail detachment: {Look to the left of animation}
Comet Encke, a periodic comet that visits the inner Solar System every 3.3 years.
The images from the two space craft show dramatic images of 2P/Encke providing thus far the most compelling evidence yet that CMEs can disrupt comets. After few hours later, the tail had grown back, replenished by the comet's nucleus.
Images: NASA
CMEs are large clouds of magnetised gas ejected into space by the sun. They are violent eruptions with masses upwards of a few billion tons traveling anywhere from 100 to 3,000 kilometers per second (62 to 1,864 miles/second).
Image showing three stages of detachment
The collision caused the complete detachment of the comet's tail plasma. NASA t released footage showing a violent encounter of high speed particles severing the comet’s tail. The spacecraft observed a CME hitting Comet Encke, which was travelling within the orbit of Mercury.a The spacecraft's shows a series of animated images of comet’s tail brightening as the CME sweeps by, and then being dragged away.
I have included this link showing the actual comet tail detachment: {Look to the left of animation}
Comet Encke, a periodic comet that visits the inner Solar System every 3.3 years.
The images from the two space craft show dramatic images of 2P/Encke providing thus far the most compelling evidence yet that CMEs can disrupt comets. After few hours later, the tail had grown back, replenished by the comet's nucleus.
Images: NASA
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