In the past few days, Comet Lovejoy or, more specifically, its expected close encounter with the Sun, was big news that set the Internet abuzz. While comets coming close, often too close to the Sun, s not exactly a hot news item, the fact that this event was going to happen to a known comet with a predictable orbit was unusual as most sun-diving comets are found only days before close encounter. Looking at the past, few expected Lovejoy to survive the close pass but surprise, that's exactly what the comet did.
With the event being predicted well in advance, it should come as no surprise that solar observatories were trained on the Sun with the intention of photographing Lovejoy's close encounter. Result: not only did Lovejoy provide quite the show, it survived.
As seen in videos of the pass, Comet Lovejoy comes in towards the Sun before making an extremely close (in cosmic terms) pass of our nearest star at a distance of just about 60,000 miles. In comparison, that's only about a quarter of the way to the Moon. Surprisingly, and quite unexpectedly, the comet re-emerges on the other side of the Sun, completely intact (save a missing tail), which left many space scientists eating their words.
Now, as Lovejoy moves away from the Sun, other space observatories will continue to monitor the comet, looking for any signs of a delayed action breakup, much like the one that destroyed 'doomsday' Comet Elenin earlier this year.
Want to see the comet for yourself? Well, it's too close to the Sun (obviously) to be visible st the moment. On top of that, the Cleveland area weather forecast is looking very lousy for the next week. So, for an even more up-to date, hour-by-hour forecast (that just may show some breaks), check out the Cleveland Clear Sky Clock to see what the night will bring. Live somewhere else? Find a clock near you.
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