Coincidence or a new finding ? Sun comets and CME...

[William Gaatjes]

It has happened a few times now that right after a comet hits the sun, there is a massive explosion happening. One such example, more examples i will post later on. It is an interesting thought nevertheless.


http://www.spaceweather.com/

Watch the movie again. The timing of the CME so soon after the comet dove into the sun suggests a link. But what? There is no known mechanism for comets to trigger solar explosions. Before 2011 most solar physicists would have discounted the events of Oct. 1st as pure coincidence--and pure coincidence is still the most likely explanation. Earlier this year, however, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) watched another sungrazer disintegrate in the sun's atmosphere. On July 5, 2011, the unnamed comet appeared to interact with plasma and magnetic fields in its surroundings as it fell apart. Could a puny comet cause a magnetic instability that might propagate and blossom into a impressive CME? The question is not so crazy as it once seemed to be.

 

[William Gaatjes]

The comet from July 5 ,2011.

SUNDIVING COMET: During the late hours of July 5th, an unnamed icy comet from the outer solar system dove into the sun and disintegrated. Click on the arrow to witness the death plunge recorded by coronagraphs onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):



Over the years, SOHO has witnessed many sungrazing comets. According to SOHO Project Scientist Bernhard Fleck, "this is one of the brightest sungrazers SOHO has recorded, similar to the Christmas comet of 1996."

The comet was 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 single giant comet around a thousand years ago, probably the Great Comet of 1106. Several of these fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate every day. Most are too small to see but occasionally a big fragment like this one attracts attention.

Although the comet has disintegrated, we may be seeing more of it in the days ahead as additional movies from other solar observatories come to light. Stay tuned

 

[William Gaatjes]

A youtube video about a comet hitting the sun in May 2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mat4dWpszoQ

 

[William Gaatjes]

Another from 15 september 2011.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Nice video from NASA about the sun grazing comet of July 5th 2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk9pfbh_iCM

 

[stormkroe]

What are the masses of those comets?

 

[Tuna-Fish]

What are the masses of those comets?

Essentially zero. Objects that go close enough to the Sun get pretty damned bright -- Soho can see comets that are only a few meters in diameter.

If there is any causation between the impacts and the eruptions (and frankly, given the amount of eruptions and impacts, the most likely explanation is still 'coincidence'), it would pretty much have to be solely caused by "triggering" some pent-up stresses in the magnetic fields. The actual impact would have negligible effect on the Sun.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Essentially zero. Objects that go close enough to the Sun get pretty damned bright -- Soho can see comets that are only a few meters in diameter.

If there is any causation between the impacts and the eruptions (and frankly, given the amount of eruptions and impacts, the most likely explanation is still 'coincidence'), it would pretty much have to be solely caused by "triggering" some pent-up stresses in the magnetic fields. The actual impact would have negligible effect on the Sun.

I fully agree with your post. When discussing with my colleague yesterday, i was also thinking of a triggering in the magnetic field or something. That is , if it is not coincidence. We shall have to wait and see.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

would a comet even reach the surface of the sun? sure, the velocity is as high as you like, but surely in the face of a star it's ablated to nothing.

 

[stormkroe]

Since most matter reaches a gas state well below the 'surface' temperature of the sun, I guess it would depend alot on the size. If big enough, it could reach the sun befor it was all boiled away. A chunk of tungsten half the size of the sun would definitely make contact, so just work backward from there

 

[sm625]

Even a 1 mg pebble dropped into a pond will cause a ripple. Specially if it is going 22000 kmh. This is one of those duh moments.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I have been tracking news about comets that are known as sun grazers.
I have seen a lot of non related CME with respect to comets diving into the sun.
Comets would dive in and nothing would happen.
But sometimes, it still seems to be more then coincidence.

http://www.spaceweather.com/


And about comet lovejoy...
The comet that survived traveling closely to the corona of the sun (140 000 km above the stellar surface) december 16 2011. A nice movie of about 25MB.

http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=16&month=12&year=2011





http://spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_lovejoy_page2.htm

 

[A5]

Even a 1 mg pebble dropped into a pond will cause a ripple. Specially if it is going 22000 kmh. This is one of those duh moments.

Now make it so that your pebble dissolves before reaching the pond. At least use a half second of critical thought, please.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I stick for now with the more likely scenario together with Tuna-Fish that in some of these comet dive events, the complex magnetic field that is already highly critical is receiving that little nudge to break apart : Externally Triggered Coronal Mass Ejections or ET-CME for short. :awe:

 

[WHAMPOM]

Butterfly effect just may not cause anything we can detect.