Newly discovered comet Lovejoy dives into the sun's corona and...

[O.S.O.K.]

emerges again! Scientists fully expected the comet to be completely consumed by the 2million degree atmosphere of the sun but it made it through "alive".

Here's a link to a short video showing it zooming out into space after emerging from the sun's atomoshpere - looks like a scalded cat! (you need to double click on the picture to get the vid moving" http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/mov/...et_emerges.mov

And here's the article about it: http://news.yahoo.com/comet-lovejoy-...015706403.html

I thought this was pretty cool.

And it obviously provides us with some very valuable information - showing that it would be possible to send a probe into the sun's atmosphere and survive.

[Warthogg]

Wonder how much mass was lost during the foray near the sun ???


Wart

[Sidartha]

Wonder how much mass was lost during the foray near the sun ???


Wart

According to NASA it had "at least 1 million tons" and was 500 ft across.
After the sun it lost about half it's mass and 80% of it's volume.
So now it's about 500,000 tons and 400ft across.

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/lovejoy.php