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Some Like It Hot - The Sungrazer That Got Too Close

07/08/2011 01:53AM

Some Like It Hot - The Sungrazer That Got Too Close

On the evening of Tuesday, July 5, 2011 a comet flew into the sun. Such comets are not unusual, and they're called "sungrazers" since they come so close to the star that they lose a great deal of mass during the approach or evaporate and disappear completely. However, no one has actually seen the end of that journey - until now. The most famous sungrazer in recent time was Comet Ikeya-Seki. In 1965 it appeared out of nowhere, dove toward the sun and swooped over the sun's surface only 450,000 km away. Because Ikeya-Seki's nucleus was large, about 5 km wide, it survived the encounter and emerged as one of the brightest comets of the past thousand years.


Comments:

  • BABOafrica [Joseph Babendreier]
  • 07/09/2011 06:29AM
Loved that article on the sungrazers!!!<br><br>When is the big one coming?<br><br>Cleers,<br>Joe