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Comet Lovejoy Plunges Into the Sun and Survives

Posted by timothy on from the part-of-brian-aker's-career-path dept.

boldie writes with a link to NASA's account of comet Lovejoy's close encounter with the sun. Excerpting: "This morning, an armada of spacecraft witnessed something that many experts thought impossible. Comet Lovejoy flew through the hot atmosphere of the sun and emerged intact. ... The comet's close encounter was recorded by at least five spacecraft: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and twin STEREO probes, Europe's Proba2 microsatellite, and the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. The most dramatic footage so far comes from SDO, which saw the comet go in (movie) and then come back out again (movie)." Here are larger QuickTime versions of the comet's entrance (22MB) and exit (26MB).

12 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. You can all thank Dr. Reyga... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    for a successful demonstration of Metaphasic Shields.

  2. Klingon Bird-of-Prey by JO_DIE_THE_STAR_F*** · · Score: 4, Funny

    That wasn't a comet it was Kirk and company in a Klingon Bird-of-Prey trying to get back to the 23rd century.

    1. Re:Klingon Bird-of-Prey by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 4, Funny

      That wasn't a comet it was Kirk and company in a Klingon Bird-of-Prey trying to get back to the 23rd century.

      Those thieving bastards just took off with a pair of my whales too. -Ismael

  3. Better title: by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Funny

    "The Sun somehow survives close call with badass comet Lovejoy. Meekly vows to be more respectful next time."

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  4. Energy Depleted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The comet's fuel reserves were low; flew into a star to recharge.

  5. Re:we are all doomed! by Colonel+Korn · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's going to come back and smash into the earth in 2012.

    Quite possible as, quoting TFA:

    "There is still a possibility that Comet Lovejoy will start to fragment,"

    No telling which directions those pieces might fly off.

    Absolutely. When a single object slowly fragments due to thermal gradients, it ignores conservation of momentum and sometimes even conservation of mass. It's possible this ~100-500 m radius comet will launch a 50000 m chunk at us with a velocity of over half the speed of light!

    --
    "I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
  6. No Audio by Cylix · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm pretty sure it was shouting, "Hot hot hot hot!"

    I'm fairly certain comet love joy won't be taking on any more dares for a while.

    --
    "You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
    1. Re:No Audio by Krishnoid · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm pretty sure it was shouting, "Hot hot hot hot!"

      Shortly after which it reported, 'I got a little cooked but I'm ok'.

  7. Re:Awesome by durrr · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's actually an aerobraking alien spacebattleship. We're so fucked.

  8. Re:Awesome by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hey that line about "comet Lovejoy plunging into the sun.."

    I just used it on some bird in the pub, and it worked!

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  9. Re:Misleading title by turing_m · · Score: 4, Funny

    And here I thought it was turtles.

    --
    If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.
  10. Re:Misleading title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's quite a bold statement!