Comet Lovejoy Plunges Into the Sun and Survives 209
boldie writes with a link to NASA's account of comet Lovejoy's close encounter with the sun. Excerpting: "This morning, an armada of spacecraft witnessed something that many experts thought impossible. Comet Lovejoy flew through the hot atmosphere of the sun and emerged intact. ... The comet's close encounter was recorded by at least five spacecraft: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and twin STEREO probes, Europe's Proba2 microsatellite, and the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. The most dramatic footage so far comes from SDO, which saw the comet go in (movie) and then come back out again (movie)."
Here are larger QuickTime versions of the comet's entrance (22MB) and exit (26MB).
You can all thank Dr. Reyga... (Score:5, Funny)
for a successful demonstration of Metaphasic Shields.
Klingon Bird-of-Prey (Score:4, Funny)
Better title: (Score:5, Funny)
"The Sun somehow survives close call with badass comet Lovejoy. Meekly vows to be more respectful next time."
Energy Depleted (Score:5, Funny)
The comet's fuel reserves were low; flew into a star to recharge.
Re:we are all doomed! (Score:5, Funny)
It's going to come back and smash into the earth in 2012.
Quite possible as, quoting TFA:
"There is still a possibility that Comet Lovejoy will start to fragment,"
No telling which directions those pieces might fly off.
Absolutely. When a single object slowly fragments due to thermal gradients, it ignores conservation of momentum and sometimes even conservation of mass. It's possible this ~100-500 m radius comet will launch a 50000 m chunk at us with a velocity of over half the speed of light!
No Audio (Score:5, Funny)
I'm pretty sure it was shouting, "Hot hot hot hot!"
I'm fairly certain comet love joy won't be taking on any more dares for a while.
Re:Klingon Bird-of-Prey (Score:4, Funny)
That wasn't a comet it was Kirk and company in a Klingon Bird-of-Prey trying to get back to the 23rd century.
Those thieving bastards just took off with a pair of my whales too. -Ismael
Re:I'm surprised they're surprised. (Score:2, Funny)
That's the weirdest combination of terrible and excellent science education ever. Congrats.
Oh my (Score:4, Funny)
"What," said Trillian in a small quiet voice, "does sundive mean?"
"It means," said Marvin, "that the ship is going to dive into the sun. Sun... Dive. It's very simple to understand. What do you expect if you steal Hotblack Desiato's stunt ship?"
"How do you know..." said Zaphod in a voice that would make a Vegan snow lizard feel chilly, "that this is Hotblack Desiato's stuntship?"
"Simple," said Marvin, "I parked it for him."
"The why... didn't... you... tell us!"
"You said you wanted excitement and adventure and really wild things."
If DNA was still alive he'd have to do a lot of rewriting.
Re:Oh my (Score:4, Funny)
Fortunately any occupants of that comet have long since used the partly working teleport to get the hell out of our solar system.
Re:No Audio (Score:5, Funny)
I'm pretty sure it was shouting, "Hot hot hot hot!"
Shortly after which it reported, 'I got a little cooked but I'm ok'.
Re:Awesome (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Awesome (Score:5, Funny)
Hey that line about "comet Lovejoy plunging into the sun.."
I just used it on some bird in the pub, and it worked!
Re:Misleading title (Score:4, Funny)
And here I thought it was turtles.
Re:Misleading title (Score:5, Funny)
That's quite a bold statement!
Re:Of course it is possible .... (Score:2, Funny)
May not be the smartest thing you have done. But I suppose it is the coolest thing you have done.
Re:we are all doomed! (Score:4, Funny)
Oh great. A big ball of ice passes through fire, survives, catches on fire, and now it's coming for us. Ice on fire. How do we even stop that?
Re:Klingon Bird-of-Prey (Score:4, Funny)
People who did a little too much LDS in the '60s.
What did the Mormons have to do with Start Trek?
And now we know... (Score:4, Funny)