Recent Sun Activity: Plasma Fountains, Sun-Grazing Comet

By Nancy Atkinson - July 12, 2011 at 3:47 PM UTC | Solar Astronomy
July-11-sun.jpg

Interesting activity captured on the Sun early today (July 12, 2011) showing an active region on the Sun's Eastern limb. Plasma was hurled very high above the stellar surface, but didn't have the needed escape velocity and most of the plasma "rained" back down in a fountain. The video shows the activity in different wavelengths.

See below for more views, including the first time a sun-grazing comet was seen disintegrating over the Sun's surface.

[/caption]

This great ground-based look at the Sun is from July 11, 2011. "A sun a little more active than the past few days, although with much mist in the city, making it impossible to get photos of larger increases," said Cesar Cantu from Monterrey, Mexico, with his Chilidog Observatory. See more at his website,

Astronomía Y Astrofotografía.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory AIA imager spotted a sun-grazing comet zooming across the face of the sun and disintegrating over about a 15 minute period on July 6, 2011. This has never observed before. It's a little difficult to see, but look closely as a line of light appears in the right just off the edge of the Sun and move across to the left. The angle of the comet's orbit brought it across the front half of the Sun.Given the intense heat and radiation, the comet simply evaporated away completely. SDO scientists say the comet was probably a member of the Kreutz sun-grazer family. The AIA imager took this video in extreme ultraviolet.

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