Comet Plunges Into Sun

Way To Go: Scientists Watch Comet Plunge Into The Sun

07:03 pm

January 19, 2012

by Eyder Peralta

Enlarge NASA The comet C/2011 N3 (SOHO) diving toward the sun in July 2011.

For the first time ever, scientists have been able to watch a comet perform a deadly dive into the sun. Back in July, a Kreutz sungrazer known as C/2011 N3 passed so close to the sun that the icy body was vaporized.
Scientists at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, who made the observations using NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, describe the comet's final death throes in a paper to be published in tomorrow's edition of the journal Science.

MORE: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/01/19/145484401/way-to-go-scientists-watch-comet-plunge-into-the-sun

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
  < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < http://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
  < http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
  < http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >