New Sundiving Comet Heading Towards the Sun!

Originally posted by SeeReeS
regardless of whether or not this sun diving comet produces significant events, it is another recently discovered space object added to the ever growing list of such. what could be producing these things? hurmmm...i wonder.

These events are not increasing, our method(s) of detection is. Strange there wasn't many detected in 1750..wonder why (sorry being sarcastic!)

reply to post by antar

Found this at comet ISON Campaign.

Comet ISON Campaign
I'm not the expert on this but I know a man who is: Prof. John Brown (Glasgow Univ.) . I've seen him give a couple of talks on the subject, and he wrote a fascinating (though math-heavy) paper titled "Mass loss, destruction and detection of Sun-grazing and -impacting cometary nuclei" that touched on this topic. In the paper, he looks at different sizes of comets and considers how each would behave were it on a sun-striking orbit. (Note: we have zero historical or modern record of any comet, ever, on a sun-striking orbit; this is all just hypothetical.) One of the more fascinating conclusions that John and his co-authors came to is that "in the case of impacts by the most massive comets (1020g or so) the cometary flare energy release (2×1035erg) is much larger than that of the largest solar flares ever observed. An impact of this magnitude would have very significant terrestrial effects." Could a comet cause a dangerous Earth-directed solar flare? Theory says yes, but probability is firmly on our side!

That's a rather terrifying statement, so let me calm some nerves here. First, when John says "massive comets" he means objects like Hale-Bopp, which was an exceptionally large comet. Comets that big are really rare inside the solar system. Second, recall we have never seen a comet strike the Sun, and there's no historical record of it ever happening. Third, and finally, the "cometary flare" John talks about would need to be Earth-directed, which gives it optimistically only about 20% (my estimate) of the solar surface to strike in order to give that result. So I'd say that asteroid impacts on Earth are of far more concern than unprecedented solar flares caused by unprecedented comets on unprecedented orbits hitting a bullseye on the Sun.

Originally posted by rickymouse
reply to post by smurfy

 

Now this is one of many articles I read on that subject. It states that from an observation, there appeared to be an interaction with the elements of the comet and the suns magnetic field. spaceweather.com... To discount something without investigating it thoroughly is not science. Some scientists are apparantly being real scientists while others are just comparing a situation to their present knowledge and making statements without actually really investigating anything.

It is nice to see that the number of people who don't make statements without actually observing things or investigating them is decreasing, we are becoming a more intelligent race. I have seen this practice of blowing things off happen many times in my lifetime. I no longer believe the interpretations of something if the evidence does not show that it is true, many people do. I also hate misapplied evidence. The worst thing we did was to close our minds, the blinding of people by the knowledge we hold is contradictory to science.

To be sure we get flawed statements second-hand in the forum presenting the 'probably not' view as if it is a fact, which it cannot be. Some of those interactions are certainly a Mesmer. Sometimes I think of the old Chef image who spat through their teeth to test the heat of the fat in a frying pan, always with a reaction that only they could guage.

Hi, noticed more objects on Lasco c2 and c3 heading into the sun. It will be interesting to see if there will be more bursts in the next few hours.

Originally posted by trontech
Hi, noticed more objects on Lasco c2 and c3 heading into the sun. It will be interesting to see if there will be more bursts in the next few hours.

Yes new comet, nice observations ..

sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov...

sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov...

Another comet... This ones pretty... ;0)