by SYN 14 Replies latest jw friends
Check out the photos on this page. They are from the SOHO satellite, during the last 2 days.
BUT I'd like to find out if anyone knows what they're showing. Look at the top of the images, and you'll see what I'm talking about.
As far as I can tell, it's a comet. I know next to nothing about astronomy, so could someone please help out who knows a little bit more?
[SYN], Puzzled Class.
That is a picture of the sun's corona taken, as you say, by the Solar and Heliocentric Satelite (SOHO). That thingy in the middle is a disk that blocks out the sun's direct rays and shows only the corona.
Just mail in the $ 0.25.
francois
Francois, what I really want to know is what that object in the top right corner is that's moving downwards towards the sun!
Look carefully, it looks almost like a comet. It stands out like a sore thumb if you animate the images. If only there was a webspace where I could upload the animated GIF I made of the images...
it could be a comet...there was one passing by recently.
or its jehovah crashing into the sun?
Hi SYN,
That just happens to be the spaceship of some blondes, on their way to the sun. (They're going at night, duh, when it's not so hot, you see.)
What do you want it to be?
Abaddon:
Seriously, of the thousands of people who come to this site, surely ONE of you knows what this is?
[SYN], Dying Of Curiosity Class
It probably is a comet - there are lots of them out there.
This site details most of them:
http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/RecentObs.html#01HT50
Here is an excerpt which may relate to the comet seen on the SOHO images:
IAU Circular 8010 (November 6, 2002) announced the discovery C/2002 V1 by NEAT of a 16th magnitude comet. The preliminary orbit (MPEC V31, November 7, 2002) indicates that this comet will pass very close to the Sun on February 18, 2003. The perihelion distance is about 0.1 AU.
That is the good news...the bad news is that the comet appears to be intrinsically faint. The comet should brighten as it approaches the Sun. It should be picked up visually prior to the end of the year. Although the comet will brighten rapidly after that, its elongation will also decrease rapidly. It will still be a telescopic object as the elongation slips to under 30 degrees making it difficult to observe. A rough calculaton of peak brightness suggests that 1st-2nd magnitude will be the peak brightness... too faint to be seen close to the Sun (except by SOHO). The comet will race south and fade rapidly after perihelion. It is likely to be a telescopic object when it is picked up again.
Is it possible that the comet could be brighter? Yes. There is a real possibility that the comet could break up (as Comet West did in 1976). If the nucleus is large enough and the comet breaks up, the comet could brighten significantly. If the comet is small, the comet could just disintegrate into nothing like the SOHO comets [or like C/2002 O4 (Hoenig) apparently did]. Of course, it might not break-up at all...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/1219_021219_comet.html
This should answer your question Syn.
| Surprise Comet Streaks Into Solar System National Geographic News
The comet was discovered by a Japanese amateur astronomer, Tetuo Kudo, early on the morning of December 14, said Clay Sherrod, an astronomer with the Arkansas Sky laboratory. "In mid- to late-January the comet will be favorably placed for early risers in the northern hemisphere and will probably be visible to the naked eye, at least toward the end of that month," Sherrod said. "Certainly binoculars will aid in spotting the comet and exposing any tail that it might show." Named Kudo-Fujikawa (and officially designated C/2002 X5), the comet is moving east-southeast through the constellation Hercules. |  |  Halley's comet orbits the Earth every 76 years, and its next scheduled visitation is in 2061. Astronomers hope that the newly discovered comet, C/2002 X5 Kudo-Fujikawa, will provide an equally impressive show for viewers here on Earth. | | |
| More News | | "The comet is a swift-moving object and currently is easily visible in the northeastern skies during pre-dawn hours, showing a pretty distinct tail and large coma (head or halo, caused by the emanation of gases and other materials as the comet warms up on its approach to the sun). The tail appears to be slightly less than one-half degree and several spikes in this tail have been recorded (on December 15) by imagers in New Mexico," Sherrod said. The jury is still out regarding just what kind of show Kudo-Fujikawa would provide Earth-based viewers when it is closest to the sun, but there is a prospect that it would be a "textbook comet," Sherrod said. "However, the visibility during its greatest brilliancewill be greatly hampered because of the comet's angle of approach to the sun and the Earth-sun-comet positioning during that period." Towards the end of January, the comet will be approaching the sun and swinging behind it from Earth's vantage point, thus getting lower and lower each successive morning into early February. "In February the comet will be more favorably placed for observers in the southern hemisphere, and there are some estimates that suggest that the comet could attain a brightness equal to the bright planet Venus (a magnitude of less than 4)," Sherrod said. Magnitude is a measure of brightness used by astronomers. The lower the magnitude value of an object, the brighter that object is.Objects that shine with a magnitude of less than 6 are usually visible with the naked eye. Kudo-Fujikawa is currently being seen at a magnitude of between 7 and 8. Much of what Earth will be able to see of Kudo-Fujikawa is contingent on the activity that occurs when it is closest to its pass by the sun (perihelion) on January 28, 2003, Sherrod said. At that point it will be only 16 million miles (25 million kilometers) from the sun. The average distance of the Earth from the sun is 93 million miles (150 million kilometers). "The retrograde orbit (meaning the comet is coming in at an opposite direction in relation to the orbits of the primary planets) of this comet and its close pass from the sun at that time have suggested to many, myself included, that the comet might potentially break up from solar radiation and solar wind. If this does indeed occur, then we might expect more volatile activity from this object than if it passes perihelion totally intact and unscathed. "Now, if this does happen, then we might expect an incredible comet to be visible as the inner, more volatile and rare gases are exposed to solar radiation," Sherrod said. For more precise instructions of how to find the cometand Sherrod's regular updates on its progressplease visit the Arkansas Sky Observatory. News Alerts From the National Geographic News Desk Receive regular e-mail alerts about breaking National Geographic news. Send an e-mail to the news desk with the word "Subscribe" in the header field. We'll let you know whenever we publish an interesting story. |
Apparently it's a comet as you speculate. And if perihelion is only 0.1AU, then it's going to be mightly close to the sun's surface, relatively speaking 93,000 miles. You'd think it would explode or something like that wouldn't you?
Maybe it's really the Raelians mother ship, come to take the clones back to the mother planet. You think maybe?
francois
