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In November of 2011 amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy discovered an icy comet heading almost directly for the sun. On Dec. 16, weeks after he found it from his backyard in Australia, Comet Lovejoy flew through the sun’s atmosphere. The comet dove into the solar corona, and several spacecraft were on hand to observe the event. Researchers were astounded to see the icy comet survive an hour in the several-million degree stellar atmosphere.
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New research published in the journal Science has analyzed telescope images of the event and found new information about the solar magnetic field.
As Lovejoy flew into the sun, its tail began to wobble instead of flowing straight behind, giving scientists their first view of how the solar magnetic field operates deep in the sun's atmosphere where our instruments can't follow.
The sun's magnetic field causes solar wind and coronal mass ejections, so-called "space weather" that can damage and interfere with satellites -- as well as cause auroras seen from Earth.
Dr Karel Schrijver, from the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in California told BBC News that the data from comet Lovejoy will improve existing computer models used to measure and possibly predict space weather.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory sees sun-grazing comets fall into the sun every few days, but none have ever been observed to survive the heat.
"Comet Lovejoy is still with us," said Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab in a release at the time, but just two days later the comet disintegrated.
Scientists are hoping for another opportunity to see a comet survive the solar corona later this year after "comet of the century" Ison passes Earth and heads into the sun.
