Hot Comet Is Approaching Sun


	Hot Comet Is Approaching Sun

invictus

1-5-2007 9:28 AM

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tags:

space, astronomy, solar system, comets, sun, comet mcnaught

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1-5-2007 6:00 PM

egoldstein

the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory will monitor the comet-Sun encounter using its onboard coronagraph

what a sentence...sometimes you just have to marvel at what's possible.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/615ce556-c107-4fa2-a90d-eca7d997d87b/082FDE28-DFB4-4C34-96E8-AAD76DD06D48/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://spaceweather.com/" href="http://spaceweather.com/" style="font-size: 11px;">spaceweather.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://spaceweather.com/"><FONT size="2" face="Arial%2C%20Helvetica%2C%20sans-serif">Comet 
                        McNaught (C/2006 P1) is plunging toward the Sun. It won't 
                        hit, but at closest approach on Jan. 13th it will be only 
                        0.17 AU away--much closer than Mercury (0.38 AU). When 
                        the hot comet emerges later this month it could be brighter 
                        than a 1st-magnitude star. Or not. No one knows what will 
                        happen.</FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://spaceweather.com/"><FONT size="2" face="Arial%2C%20Helvetica%2C%20sans-serif">Meanwhile, 
                        you can see the comet with your own eyes:</FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://spaceweather.com/"><div align="center"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/spaceweather.com/img/C0C1AAA0-BC0C-47EA-9CF4-6819191F9CBD" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://spaceweather.com/"><FONT size="2" face="Arial%2C%20Helvetica%2C%20sans-serif">"This 
                        morning (Jan. 3rd) the comet was faintly visible to the 
                        naked eye before sunrise at an altitude of 4 degrees (the 
                        sun was 10 degrees below the horizon)," reports photographer 
                        Haakon Dahle of Fjellhamar, Norway. "The photo," 
                        he says, "resembles the view through <A href="http://spaceweather.com/ccount.php?linkURL=http://www.meade.com/captureview/index.html">binoculars</A>."<STRONG> 
                        </STRONG></FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://spaceweather.com/"><FONT size="2" face="Arial%2C%20Helvetica%2C%20sans-serif">Soon, 
                        the comet will be too close to the Sun to see--unless 
                        you're SOHO. From Jan. 11th to 15th, the Solar and Heliospheric 
                        Observatory will monitor the comet-Sun encounter using 
                        its onboard <A href="http://spaceweather.com/glossary/coronagraph.html">coronagraph</A>. 
                        A date of note is Jan. 14th when Comet McNaught passes 
                        less than a degree from the planet Mercury. Join SOHO 
                        for a <A href="http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/c3/512/">ringside 
                        seat</A>.</FONT></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/082FDE28-DFB4-4C34-96E8-AAD76DD06D48/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>