July 11, 2011: Death of a Comet

[classicman]

(Space.com)

The death of a comet that plunged into the sun was captured on camera this month for the first time in history, scientists say.

The comet met its fiery demise on July 6 when it zoomed in from behind the sun and melted into oblivion as it crashed into the star. It was NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a satellite orbiting Earth that studies the sun, which witnessed the comet's death-blow.

One of the SDO spacecraft's high-definition imagers "actually spotted a sun-grazing comet as it disintegrated over about a 15 minute period (July 6, 2011), something never observed before," SDO officials said.

Comets have been spotted near the sun before, but last week's object was the first to be observed in real-time as it disappeared.

"Given the intense heat and radiation, the comet simply evaporated away completely," SDO officials said.

The comet was a type known to astronomers as a sun-grazing comet because its path brought it extremely close to the sun.

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, a joint NASA-European Space Agency spacecraft, also spotted the comet's demise and recorded a video of the event.

Link

[Diaphone Jim]

What an astounding and memorable photograph.
That poor comet!
Uh, where exactly is it?

[lupin..the..3rd]

Originally Posted by Diaphone Jim

What an astounding and memorable photograph.
That poor comet!
Uh, where exactly is it?

I think it's that hazy swirl shape near the middle. It's hard to see because it evaporated away completely, it's gone now.

[Wombat]

I think the pic above is just a stock image of the sun, not an photo of the comet event.

Here is the video of the actual event, showing the comet evaporating as it gets closer to the sun:
http://www.space.com/12188-comet-death-dive-sun.html

I've no idea if the video is actual speed or shown speeded up.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Wombat

I think the pic above is just a stock image of the sun, not an photo of the comet event.

Here is the video of the actual event, showing the comet evaporating as it gets closer to the sun:
http://www.space.com/12188-comet-death-dive-sun.html

I've no idea if the video is actual speed or shown speeded up.

There's a lot of shit flying around in that clip.

[classicman]

[Tanalia]

That is not a stock image of the sun, it is a still from a different video, from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EDTP13Lc3w&hd=1

(if the link is bad, the title of the video to search for is:
NASA's SDO sees a comet streak across the face of the Sun!
)

[CaliforniaMama]

So, if the comet disintegrated over a 15 minute period, then why does the video (Tanalia's) show it going so stinkin' fast?

Still, pretty interesting stuff.

[SPUCK]

Thanks for the assists there people.

[Elspode]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaMama

So, if the comet disintegrated over a 15 minute period, then why does the video (Tanalia's) show it going so stinkin' fast?

Still, pretty interesting stuff.

The video is not in real time, but is instead a series of images that span a fifteen minute period, or thereabouts. Usually, there's a time indicator incrementing somewhere in the frame that shows the period covered.