Scientists see comets, sun interact
Posted: Tue, Oct 2, 2007, 8:03 AM ET (1203 GMT)
A solar storm ripped away one comet's tail while another comet slowed down the solar wind far from the Sun, astronomers said on Monday. In one paper to be published this month in the Astrophysical Journal, NASA researchers reported how a coronal mass ejection collided with the comet Encke when the comet was about as far from the Sun as the planet Mercury. The collision, witnessed by the STEREO-A spacecraft in April 2007, ripped away the comet's tail. Researchers suspect that a process known as magnetic reconnection may have released enough energy to strip away the tail. Separately, University of Michigan scientists, in a paper in the same journal, reported on the interaction of the solar wind with the comet McNaught, as witnessed by instruments on the Ulysses spacecraft. Researchers found that the solar wind's velocity slowed by half after passing through the comet's ion tail, more than 250 million kilometers from the Sun. The physics of the interaction between the solar wind and comet tail remain unclear.
A solar storm ripped away one comet's tail while another comet slowed down the solar wind far from the Sun, astronomers said on Monday. In one paper to be published this month in the Astrophysical Journal, NASA researchers reported how a coronal mass ejection collided with the comet Encke when the comet was about as far from the Sun as the planet Mercury. The collision, witnessed by the STEREO-A spacecraft in April 2007, ripped away the comet's tail. Researchers suspect that a process known as magnetic reconnection may have released enough energy to strip away the tail. Separately, University of Michigan scientists, in a paper in the same journal, reported on the interaction of the solar wind with the comet McNaught, as witnessed by instruments on the Ulysses spacecraft. Researchers found that the solar wind's velocity slowed by half after passing through the comet's ion tail, more than 250 million kilometers from the Sun. The physics of the interaction between the solar wind and comet tail remain unclear.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Tuesday, March 31
Europe's engines powering Artemis II
ESA — 6:42 am ET (1042 GMT) Eight more satellites added to IRIDE space programme
ESA — 6:42 am ET (1042 GMT) Seven missions launched to test optimised data transfer from space
ESA — 6:42 am ET (1042 GMT) ESA marks 60 years of Star Trek at London's Science Museum
ESA — 6:42 am ET (1042 GMT) Vandenberg SFB supports National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Transporter-16 mission
US Space Force — 6:39 am ET (1039 GMT) |
