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Old 01-03-2010, 05:48 PM   #13
WiNaDeYo
Avalon Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Lombardy, Italy
Posts: 222
Default Re: Daily Solar Status and how to protect oneself

Today from http://spaceweather.com/

Quote:
DISINTEGRATING COMET: A bright comet discovered by NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft is swinging by the sun today and apparently disintegrating. Click on the image to set the scene in motion:




It will be interesting to see if a disembodied tail emerges from behind the coronagraph's occulting disk in the hours ahead.

This kamikaze comet is probably a member of the Kreutz sungrazer family. Named after a 19th century German astronomer who studied them in detail, Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a giant comet at least 2000 years ago. Several of these fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate every day. Most are too small to see. Today's fragment is a big exception.

Credit: The comet was found on Jan. 2nd by Australian amateur astronomer Alan Watson, who was inspecting images obtained by STEREO-A's Heliospheric Imager on Dec. 30, 2009.
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