Home Science Space NASA catches Sun gobbling up a Kreutz comet
Get all your tech news delivered to your mail box five days a week
iTWire UPDATE - it's FREE!




The images gathered by NASA were accomplished by using a “false eclipse” technique that allows the light from the Sun to be blocked out (occulted).

In this way, the comet is able to be seen by the coronagraph instrument onboard of SOHO.

See the SOHO image at: “SOHO: One Less Comet (January 5, 2010).”

According to the SOHO website, “SOHO's coronagraph instruments block out the Sun with an occulting disk; the white circle represents the size of the Sun."

"The comet was discovered on Jan. 2nd by Australian amateur astronomer Alan Watson, who was inspecting images obtained by STEREO-A's Heliospheric Imager on Dec. 30, 2009.”

It also states, “The bright object slowly moving right to left below the Sun in the wider field of view movie clip (blue) is Venus. In that clip a smaller Mercury can also be seen moving from the left edge to just about above the Sun.”

You'll see the comet moving fast from left to right across the screen--until the occulting disk (which is blocking the sunlight) gobbles it up.

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION REPORT 2013

HIRE OR FIRE? BUY OR BUILD

2013 is well underway and Australian companies need to know whether they should invest in IT skills training or pay a premium for the people they need.

If you want to know which choices are being made in your sector, what skills are hard to find, which sectors intend to hire or fire and where the IT spend is going, this free report is must have.

GET YOUR REPORT NOW

William Atkins

William Atkins completed educational degrees in science (bachelor’s in physics and mathematics) from Illinois State University (Normal, United States) and business (master’s in entrepreneurship and bachelor’s in industrial relations) from Western Illinois University

Connect

http://bs.serving-sys.com/BurstingPipe/adServer.bs?cn=tf&c=19&mc=imp&pli=5460041&PluID=0&ord=[2000]&rtu=-1