Feisty Comet Lovejoy Survives Close Encounter with the Sun

By Nancy Atkinson - December 16, 2011 at 2:28 PM UTC | Solar Astronomy
Lovejoy_loses_tail.jpg

It's the morning after for the sungrazing Comet Lovejoy, and this feisty comet has scientists shaking their heads in disbelief. "I don't know where to begin," wrote Karl Battams, from the Naval Research Laboratory, who curates the

Sun-grazing comets webpage

. "What an extraordinary 24hrs! I suppose the first thing to say is this: I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. And I have never been so happy to be wrong!"

Many experts were predicting Comet Lovejoy would not survive perihelion, where it came within about 120,000 km from the Sun. But some extraordinary videos by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory showed the comet entering and then surprisingly exiting the Sun's atmosphere. Battams said he envisioned that if the comet survived at all, what would be left would be just a very diffuse component that would endure maybe a few hours after its close encounter with the Sun. But somehow it survived, even after enduring the several million-degree solar corona for nearly an hour. However, Comet Lovejoy appears to have lost its tail, as you can see in the image below.

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The comet is now in the view of other spacecraft, which will continue monitoring the object. It will likely grow a "new" tail as outgassing of dust, gas and debris will continue. It is not known yet how much of Comet Lovejoy's core remains -- which was 200 meters in diameter earlier this week -- or how long it will continue to stay together after its close brush with the Sun.

But we'll keep you posted!

See more videos of Lovejoy's survival below:

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com