Did a comet impact trigger a CME on the Sun? (video)

[pokerfan]

(Probably not but cool video.)

This amazing video from the SOHO mission (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) shows a sun-diving comet hitting the solar surface on October 1, 2011 and unexpectedly a huge explosion occurs shortly after. Are the two events related? Probably not, but solar scientists don’t know for sure. The region where the CME originated was on the opposite side of the Sun from the comet hit, so that is very great distance. Scientists say there is no known mechanism for comets to trigger a CME.

http://www.universetoday.com/89433/did-a-comet-hit-cause-an-cme-on-the-sun

[Lucinda]

1. Thank you!

Interesting website!

[GreenStormCloud]

2. Comets are too tiny, compared to the sun, to do that. N/T

[Speck Tater]

3. I wonder if the comet impact caused a tsunami on the "surface" of the sun.

I quote "surface" because it's all pretty fluid, but still, a tsunami-type event could have propagated around the globe and converged on the opposite side. Just a half-baked notion, of course.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Funny you should say "tsunami" on the surface of the sun.... if you check this link

you might be shocked, horrified or you may just laugh at it.

www.thesurfaceofthesun.com

[Speck Tater]

6. Holy Cow! That's amainzg stuff! Thanks for the link. nt

[laconicsax]

7. So...the sun has a solid calcium-iron surface now?

:rofl:

[Confusious]

9. Horrified.

The surface of the sun is made of iron. mind boggling horrified.

[pokerfan]

10. Iron is the last stage of fusion

As I understand it, to fuse iron into a heavier element would require more energy than could be released by the reaction. Interestingly, the same thing apparently works in reverse for fission. Iron is still the end point. To split an atom lighter than iron would take more energy than produced.

Fusion fuses elements lighter than iron. Fission divides elements heavier than iron.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_binding_energy

[Confusious]

11. Yes, but the only place fusion happens

is at the core of a star. That is where iron is made...... not on the surface of the sun.

[pokerfan]

12. I agree

Never been a fan of the iron sun theory: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=673

[Marnie]

5. What if the comet just grazed the back side of the sun

or hit it's heat and exploded.

Do they know the comet actually lawn darted?

[pokerfan]

8. The Bad Astronomer

So my guess is that while it’s possible, it’s not probable. CMEs happen all the time, so I’d expect a few to happen around the same time as comets flying past the Sun just by coincidence. We don’t have any physical reason to think they’re related, and when they are examined more closely, the CMEs usually don’t come from a spot near the Sun where the comet traveled. Still, it’s worth looking into, at least to build up a statistical case on way or the other.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/04/the-comet-and-the-coronal-mass-ejection

[rayofreason]

13. The answer is no. n/t