Sun becoming comet eating Pac-Man

William Atkins
Sunday, 11 April 2010 22:47

Science - Space

The Sun has been gobbling up comets lately. The latest one being a unexpected comet going to its demise early on the morning of Saturday, April 10, 2010.

 

 

Unlike the video game Pac-Man, the Sun isn't intentionally trying to gobble up "comet-dots."

 

The Sun has such a large gravitational field, that the comets are naturally drawn into the Sun ... and, boom, they are dommed to plunge into the hot, fiery star we call the Sun.

 

In an earlier incident, on January 3-4, 2010, NASA used its Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft to observe a large Kreutz comet plunging into the Sun.

 

The incident was written up in the January 6, 2010 iTWire article 'NASA catches Sun gobbling up a Kreutz comet.'

Another one was seen plunging into the Sun on March 12, 2010.

 

Now, on April 9-10, 2010, the Sun once again has pac-manned another comet.

 

This time, astronomers were left pretty much unaware of the presence of the comet until just before its demise in the early morning hours of April 10th.

 

Page two continues with more information about the comet, along with a video of the Pac-Man-like plunge into the Sun.