Comet Plunge and CME (August 23, 2013)

Hi-res TIF (927K)

Movies: QT: Large (1.1M), Small (295K)
MPEG (2.2M), MP4 (1.9M) M4V (457K)

A small comet was streaking towards the Sun when the Sun blew out a "halo" coronal mass ejection (CME) Aug. 19-20, 2013). The CME originated from the far side of the Sun and did not have any interaction with the comet. The comet, only perhaps 30 meters across, was not seen after it went out of view, likely disintegrated by the heat and radiation from the Sun. We call this a "full halo" CME since the front edge of the CME is expanding in all directions around the Sun like a halo.

The images were taken by SOHO's coronagraphs in which a disk (black) blocks the Sun and some of the area around it so we can see faint structures beyond that. Here we superimposed the Sun from NASA's SDO. The movie covers about five hours of activity.

SOHO began its Weekly Pick some time after sending a weekly image or video clip to the American Museum of Natural History (Rose Center) in New York City. There, the SOHO Weekly Pick is displayed with some annotations on a large plasma display.

If your institution would also like to receive the same Weekly Pick from us for display (usually in Photoshop or QuickTime format), please send your inquiry to steele.hill@gsfc.nasa.gov.