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n2doc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-04-11 07:41 PM
Original message
Holy Crap!
First, watch this sequence:




What is it? It’s an animation made from images taken by ESA’s SOHO solar observatory showing a comet diving into the Sun on October 1, and then a large CME (coronal mass ejection) erupting immediately thereafter.

Now, typically science has said that there is no connection between comets impacting the Sun and CMEs, or any other major eruption event. Comets are just too small to cause something like that to occur. Right?

http://lightsinthedark.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/can-comets-cause-cmes/
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abelenkpe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-04-11 07:45 PM
Response to Original message
1. YIkes nt
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DirkGently Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-04-11 07:46 PM
Response to Original message
2. Whoa.
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annabanana Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-04-11 07:47 PM
Response to Original message
3. Just how big was that comet?. . .. . ..n/t
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jberryhill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-04-11 07:54 PM
Response to Original message
4. The later frames were even cooler..
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toddwv Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-04-11 07:58 PM
Response to Original message
5. Alien missile.
We're under attack!
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obxhead Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-04-11 08:07 PM
Response to Original message
6. Wow, that was cool.
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Angry Dragon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-04-11 08:45 PM
Response to Original message
7. What do they expect when they draw a bulls-eye on the sun
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Arctic Dave Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-04-11 08:55 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. Snarf! LOL!
+1,000
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Confusious Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-04-11 09:25 PM
Response to Original message
9. Personally, I would say
Edited on Tue Oct-04-11 09:26 PM by Confusious
It made what appears to be one. Since comets are mostly ice, it probably melted more and more as it got closer to the surface of the sun, turning into a plasma, then blasted outward by the solar wind before ever hitting the sun.

Of course, just a conjecture.
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Posteritatis Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-05-11 04:17 AM
Response to Reply #9
13. It'd probably have to mass as much as the Earth for a blast of that size. (nt)
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Confusious Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-05-11 01:35 PM
Response to Reply #13
16. Or it was closer.
perspective.
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Posteritatis Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-05-11 03:07 PM
Response to Reply #16
17. Distance has nothing to do with it
You aren't getting the scale differences there. Something like this is the equivalent of walking into a gently floating speck of dust - a speck which is rapidly shrinking as it approaches you - and having it cause you physical damage on contact. It's just not going to happen.
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Confusious Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-05-11 03:17 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. Distance has everything to do with it
Edited on Wed Oct-05-11 03:17 PM by Confusious
if you scaled up the sun from that image to actual size, and then multiplied the size of the comet by that same number, it would be larger then the earth.

The comet is closer to the camera then the sun is, so it appears larger.

The material being thrown out to the left is also larger.

It never even hit the sun.
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Posteritatis Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-05-11 05:46 PM
Response to Reply #18
19. Uhhh, no. (nt)
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Confusious Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-05-11 07:04 PM
Response to Reply #19
20. Excellent retort.
Edited on Wed Oct-05-11 07:25 PM by Confusious
How about it was all just a coincidence. The sun had a CME at the same time as the comet came around.

seriously. Thats what badastronomer speculates.
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Dragonbreathp9d Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Oct-04-11 10:22 PM
Response to Original message
10. If you haven't seen the movie "Sunshine"
Do it
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Confusious Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-05-11 02:52 AM
Response to Reply #10
12. Good movie
Disturbing tho.
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Nostradammit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-05-11 12:37 AM
Response to Original message
11. "Back and to the left...."
"back, and to the left..."



Where was Poppy Bush on Saturday?
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callous taoboy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-05-11 11:56 AM
Response to Original message
14. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
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RobertSeattle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-05-11 12:15 PM
Response to Original message
15. Oh please, the first does not cause the latter
Edited on Wed Oct-05-11 12:22 PM by RobertSeattle
The comet would have a trivial amount of mass compared to mass ejection.

Debunked by a real scientist.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/04/the-comet-and-the-coronal-mass-ejection/
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petronius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Oct-05-11 07:47 PM
Response to Original message
21. OMG! They killed Kenny!
Cool images, now off to read the links...
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