Astro-movie of the day: Sun-blast tears off a comet's tail

[mckitterick]

Whoah - this is amazing! In the animated .gif below, you'll see a solar eruption (coronal mass ejection) blast the comet and then tear its tail off.

Click the image to see the story.

Cool!
Chris

Comments

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

I bet the poor comet feels naked without its tail. It's all like hey, WTF, where's my tail? Or, maybe it'll grow back as it collects more space debris...?

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Heee. Actually, you can see its tail grow back pretty quickly. I bet the very blast that tore off its tail also supplied the energy for the comet to grow a new one.

[renegade500.livejournal.com]

Actually, you can see its tail grow back pretty quickly.

Okay, I see that. But it's just not as impressive as the one it lost. But then again, the loop does cut off, so maybe Mr. Comet gets all his tail glory back.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I suspect it'll be a while before it gets a nice, big tail back.

[weaselmom.livejournal.com]

It's like a little space gecko. I'm sure all the NASA guys were totally geeking out when they watched it!

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

A little space gecko! I love it!

[darkyak.livejournal.com]

That right there is pretty damn awesome.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Ain't it though?

[tbclone47.livejournal.com]

that's flippin' cool. (Maybe a space sperm?)

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I know! I had to share. (So where is it headed - the Sun? I daresay things will not proceed as planned.)