Back in 2011 , comet Lovejoy boldly went where no space vehicle has gone before — straight through the Sun ’s solar corona . Remarkably , it survived the close skirmish and continued along its manner to the stunned solar system . Now , scientist have used the outcome to reverse the comet into a regular outer space probe .
Top figure of speech : A visualization of the coronal magnetic area through which comet Lovejoy passed in 2011 . The fragile magenta arc betoken Lovejoy ’s path , which travelled through open ( orange ) and close ( blue ) magnetic field of operations line . Credit : Cooper John L. H. Down .
make love as a sungrazer comet , Lovejoy break the Sun ’s violent outer atmosphere on December 15 , 2011 . scientist knew in advance that this flyby would happen , so they had their measuring equipment quick , including NASA ’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and matching Stereo orbiters , as well as Japan ’s Hinode spacecraft .
By watching a foreign object go through it , the scientists were skip to glean information about the sun ’s intense magnetic force field . Needless to say , it was an unprecedented chance ; no outer space probe would ever live a journeying that tight . And in fact , most scientists suspected that Lovejoy would n’t hold up either , but it did .
As Comet Lovejoy come near the Lord’s Day , it moved at a blister gait — about 400 miles ( 600 kilometre ) per second . It appeared as a bright corpuscle with a long , glow tail . As it got nearer to the Lord’s Day , it experience more and more brighter , attain areas where the temperature pass gazillion of degrees Celsius .
But then something interesting happened : The comet ’s posterior began to swirl and wiggle . For a abbreviated time , the tail did not follow the comet ’s headway as normally gestate . Scientists say it got locked onto the sun ’s magnetic theatre , and then it click back and forth . These movements were exactly the sort of matter the research worker were hoping for .
scientist have since taken this information and apply it to computer model . They conclude that , in gild to survive the encounter , Lovejoy had to be at least 1,600 base in diam . The research team , which admit Cooper Downs , discovered that charged particle in the comet ’s tooshie guggle while lapse through the corona discharge as it was bear upon by the expanse ’s inhomogenous magnetic airfield . In turn , John L. H. Down ’ team create a model , and a function , that explained the particles ’ movements .
Read the entire study at Science : “ Probing the Solar Magnetic Field with a Sun - Grazing Comet . ”
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