Sungrazing Comet to Encounter Sun Dec. 15

Newfound Comet to Dive Through Sun Next Week

by Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist

Date: 06 December 2011 Time: 07:00 AM ET

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The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory captured this shot of a huge coronal mass ejection on Oct. 1, 2011, shortly after a comet dove into the sun (inset, right). CREDIT: SOHO/NASA/ESA View full size image

A newly discovered comet is racing toward a mid-December rendezvous with the sun — a rendezvous that it will likely not survive.
The comet is categorized by astronomers as a "sungrazer" and it is destined to do just that; literally graze the surface of the sun (called the photosphere) and pass through the sun's intensely hot corona, where temperatures have been measured at upwards of 3.6-million degrees Fahrenheit (2-million degrees Celsius).

MORE: http://www.space.com/13830-sungrazing-comet-lovejoy-fly-sun.html





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