Comet Lovejoy continues to amaze - see it now

David Heath
Friday, 23 December 2011 20:38

Science - Space

Following its recent close encounter with the sun, Comet Lovejoy is offering an early-morning spectacle.

On December 16th, Comet Lovejoy confounded the so-called experts by surviving a close encounter with the Sun, passing just 186,000km above the surface. 

Comet Lovejoy is a member of the group known as Kreutz sungrazers (named after the astronomer who first tracked them) which follow highly elliptical orbits and pass very close to the Sun.

When detected a few weeks ago, and its path calculated, most experts expected that Lovejoy would not survive its close encounter with the Sun when it passed less than 200,000km above the surface through a solar atmosphere estimated to be around 16,000,000 deg C.

Far from being destroyed, Comet Lovejoy reappeared relatively unscathed and has been moving quickly away from the sun. The trasverse was observed in great detail by just about every science satellite in orbit around the sun.

Sothern hemisphere observers are currently getting an excellent view of the comet in the pre-dawn hours.  It is expected that it will remain visible for a few more days, but is fading relatively quickly.

Australian (and equivalent southern hemisphere) observers should look to the south east (in the direction of the soon-to-be-rising Sun) where they will see the faint comet's tail, with the nucleus around 20 degrees ahead of the Sun (growing to 40 degrees by New Years Eve).

The comet has been photographed by observers in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil (amongst many places).  It has also been observed and photographed by astronaut Dan Burbank aboard the International Space Station.