[meteorite-list] In SOHO's Pictures, Watch A Comet Passing Near The Sun

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:50:28 2004
Message-ID: <200204181517.IAA06494_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

ESA Science News
http://sci.esa.int

17 Apr 2002

In SOHO's pictures, watch a comet passing near the Sun

Between now and Saturday, 20 April, you can follow via the Internet
the progress of the new-found Comet SOHO-422. Usually, comets seen by
the SOHO spacecraft quickly burn up in the Sun's hot atmosphere. This
one won't, so there is still time to monitor its progress.

Like most of the hundreds of comets found with the ESA-NASA
sun-watching spacecraft, SOHO-422 was first noticed by an amateur
astronomer. Pictures from SOHO are made available, freely and rapidly,
on the Internet. People all around the world look especially at
images from the LASCO C3 instrument, which covers the widest region
of space, hoping for the honour of winning the race to spot the next
incoming comet.

In this case XingMing Zhou of China was the sharp-eyed discoverer of
what is officially designated as Comet 2002 G3 (SOHO). An animation
of successive images of the comet (see link) shows it entering from
the bottom left and following a curved track upwards. It passed
behind a pillar that holds the mask blocking direct sunlight.

This morning, 17 April, the comet made its closest approach to the
Sun. In the next few days it will continue upwards and to the right
before moving out of the field of view.

Caution: This comet is visible only with SOHO's special equipment. Do
NOT try to see it by looking at the Sun for yourself -- the brightness
will damage your eyes!

SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
The spacecraft was built in Europe for ESA, equipped with instruments
by teams of scientists in Europe and the USA, and launched by NASA
December 1995.

USEFUL LINKS FOR THIS STORY

* Latest images from SOHO (comet is in LASCO C3)
  http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html
* Animation of past images of Comet SOHO-422 (asf; 80 kb)
  http://spdext.estec.esa.nl/content/searchvideo/searchresult.cfm?aid=14&cid=37&ooid=29830&returnto=1&ftitle=&customsearch=0
* The Sun now
  http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/ASE08Y9KOYC_Protecting_0.html
* SOHO home page
  http://sci.esa.int/home/soho/
* How to discover comets with SOHO
  http://sungrazer.nascom.nasa.gov/
* SOHO's private view of a sunbathing comet
  http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=14&cid=37&oid=29213
* SOHO's unique view of a comet that fell to pieces
  http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=14&cid=37&oid=27088
* SOHO analyses a kamikaze comet
  http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=14&cid=37&oid=26188

IMAGE CAPTION:
[http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=14&cid=12&oid=29838&ooid=29829]
LASCO C3 image taken on 16 April 2002 at 17:18.

The comet is the small white streak to the left of the Sun. The white
ring in the middle of the picture shows the size of the Sun, which is
hidden behind the round mask blocking its direct rays. Credit:
SOHO/LASCO (ESA & NASA)

See also the movie of the Comet SOHO-422 (asf; 80 kb).
Received on Thu 18 Apr 2002 11:17:47 AM PDT