Sun Grazing Comets as Solar Probes

  • Released Tuesday, December 4th, 2012
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:52PM
  • ID: 11158

To observe how winds move high in Earth's atmosphere, scientists sometimes release clouds of barium as tracers to track how the material corkscrews and sweeps around — but scientists have no similar technique to study the turbulent atmosphere of the sun. So researchers were excited in December 2011, when Comet Lovejoy swept right through the sun's corona with its long tail streaming behind it. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured images of the comet, showing how its long tail was buffeted by systems around the sun, offering scientists a unique way of observing movement as if they'd orchestrated the experiment themselves. Since comet tails have ionized gases, they are also affected by the sun's magnetic field, and can act as tracers of the complex magnetic system higher up in the atmosphere. Comets can also aid in the study of coronal mass ejections and the solar wind.

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Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center


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This visualization originally appeared on the following tapes:
  • Sun Grazers (ID: 2012123)
    Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 5:00AM
    Produced by - Robert Crippen