Comet Encke dataset from STEREO
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- Visualizations by:
- Walt Feimer
- View full credits
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
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Animator
- Walt Feimer (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
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Scientist
- Angelos Vourlidas (Johns Hopkins University/APL)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Related Pages
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ID: 11158 Produced Video
Sun Grazing Comets as Solar Probes
Read moreTo 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.Watch this video on YouTube. ||
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