Two Comets Slam into Sun

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Posted by Cliff on Sunday November 9, 2003 @02:21PM from the solar-belching dept.

NightWulf notes: "CNN has an article about two comets that slammed into the Sun this week, causing it to 'burp.' They have some cool images of collision as well as a quicktime video. Could this have been the cause of the large solar flares that have been occurring this week?" Update: 11/10 03:07 GMT by H : Hah. Cliff's feeling retro I guess, and posted this story from 1998.

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Flares by Anonymous Coward · 2003-11-09 14:22 · Score: 5, Funny

Could this have been the cause of the large solar flares that have been occurring this week?"
No.
umm, no. by the_greywolf · 2003-11-09 14:24 · Score: 3, Informative

Could this have been the cause of the large solar flares that have been occurring this week?
that'd be kinda hard since it happened SIX YEARS AGO in June.

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grey wolf
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Not quite quick on the draw... by p4ul13 · 2003-11-09 14:26 · Score: 5, Funny

"June 4, 1998 Web posted at: 3:50 p.m. EDT (1950 GMT)"

Not exactly breaking news here. I'm pretty sure that since this article is 5 years old, the comets didn't cause the solar flares.

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1. Re:Not quite quick on the draw... by hawkstone · 2003-11-09 14:39 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  And the best part? The year is in the URL, the dateline, pasted on every single image, and implicit in the references to Deep Impact and Armageddon in the first paragraph.
2. Re:Not quite quick on the draw... by whorfin · 2003-11-09 17:16 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Welcome to /., where nobody RTFA, including the posters and editors!
  
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Butterfly causes hurricane by Anonymous Coward · 2003-11-09 14:34 · Score: 3, Funny

In other news the movement of a butterfly's wings in the last century has been shown to have caused last month's hurricane.
Wow... by AnnCoulterTroll · 2003-11-09 14:35 · Score: 3, Funny

That CNN looks awful. Wait, a second, phone call. It's 1998 calling, they said they want their ugly web site back.
Science Called by OwlofCreamCheese · 2003-11-09 15:24 · Score: 4, Funny

Science called.... I...I don't know what it was trying to say... but I think it was crying.

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Is this a dupe? by jon787 · 2003-11-09 15:25 · Score: 4, Funny

Anyone know if /. posted this one 5 year ago?
I hope it wasn't in the story queue for 5 years.

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Party like it's 1998! by Chester+K · 2003-11-09 16:56 · Score: 4, Funny

NightWulf and Cliff, you may think I'm crazy, but sell your dot-com stock now !!!

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NO CARRIER
ooohhh - maths.... that must be true... by quinkin · 2003-11-09 17:19 · Score: 3, Interesting

I guess I can pretty much rule out big red switches controlling a terrestrial nuclear fission device too...
After all - F=1/2mv^2
So assuming a finger velocity of 10ms^-1 and a combined finger/button mass of 0.05Kg we still only acheive an energy output of approx. 2.5J.
Obviously this is far short of the 1.928 x 10 E10 joules produced by 1 Kg of Uranium 235. Hence we can rule out any relationship between buttons and terrestrial fission devices...
Ok, so that is a touch inflammatory - but if I see one more "mathematically proven" piece of opinion I am going to "go critical".
After 10 seconds of thought here is my analysis:
Comets have two tails, not one. One is the "dust tail", the other the "ion tail". The ion tail (generally CO2 ionised by UV radiation) is swept away from the surface of the sun by its "solar magnetic wind" and hence will be roughly perpendicular to the suns surface (and hence it's field force lines).
An ionic tail (possibly up to an astronomical unit in length) descending into the suns EM fields is going to be like sticking a fork in a powerpoint...
To quote Nasa: "Flares appear to be associated with rapid energy releases high above the photosphere"
Hypothesis complete. Completely unproven of course, but I will not rule it "in" or "out"...
Q.

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Technically it did happen today... by nmoog · 2003-11-09 17:54 · Score: 4, Funny

Everyone know that light from CNN takes over 5 1/2 years to reach slashdot. So while you are only seeing the story appear now, the event actually occurred in 1998...