If the comet hits the sun...

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/...altime-c2.html

No, the mass of the sun is to much for it to mean anything. A thousand comets could hit the sun all at once and it wouldn't do anything.

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I must not PX. PX is the mind-killer. I will face my PX. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the PX has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Does anyone know

It's roughly the same as an ant running full-speed into a brick wall.

A really hot brick wall!

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I must not PX. PX is the mind-killer. I will face my PX. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the PX has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

About 25,000,000 Fahrenheit. :P

the sun is the circle in the center right,

Is that comet vesta or neat

And the ant would not so much get a headache as slightly incinerated.

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Quidquid Latinae dictum sit, altum viditur.

Its the first time I hear of it

I'm not really an astronomer, but given the amount of comets out there I'd say it's probably pretty common, even though most of them simply burn up pretty early on.

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Quidquid Latinae dictum sit, altum viditur.

Wanna see some real amazing pictures from 2000/01?

http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/bestofso...T_Nov8_00G.gif
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/besto...GE3/c2dblG.gif

Beautiful! Many more under the 'Best of Soho' link on the site! 8)

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The following tale of alien encounter is true and by true, I mean false. Its all lies. But they're entertaining lies, and in the end isn't that the real truth? The answer is no. - Leonard Nimoy, The Simpsons (maybe regarding Planet X?) :D

I've heard all the planets together could hit the sun and it wouldn't be phased. The sun is just to dang big to care.

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I must not PX. PX is the mind-killer. I will face my PX. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the PX has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

He He, I once heard that astrophysicists call our solar system: 'The Sun, Jupiter and assorted debris' because over 99% of the mass of the solar system is concentrated on the sun, that how big it is

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Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

I've heard that one too. Kinda puts things into perspective, yeah?

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Quidquid Latinae dictum sit, altum viditur.

Yup!

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Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Greenhalgh,

Great pics.........SOHO is a Great site.

Although some use it to foolishly prove a false existance of PX.
Myself on the other hand enjoy the pics as I have always been fascinated to the center of our Solar System.
thanks;
josun

This one is awesome:

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/besto...promcloseG.gif

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Quidquid Latinae dictum sit, altum viditur.

Fluffis;


Great Capture...This universe really Blows my Mind.

But… Should a high velocity solar collision with a significantly massive object (i.e. ~ 0.5 'Lunar masses' and up) occur at such position/attitude that Earth is 'splashed' by ejected plasma... OOOOOOOOOOOH! Golly! That'd smart!!!

Moreover, it is hypothesized (in certain quarters) that the 'swallowing' of large planets may be a factor in the enigmatic, transient, and rather dramatic (i.e. circa 1,000,000 fold) isothermal expansion observed of certain stars - But not to worry! Jupiter and 'his' buddies (i.e. the gas Giants) are content in their orbits

"The sky is filled with good and bad the mortals never know..." --- Zep

OBTW please don't be confused by the claimed 'sizes' of comets! - The coma (i.e. the gaseous cloud of volatilized substances surrounding many such bodies as they approach the inner solar-system and are hence heated by (far) IR and 'mechanically' [i.e. kinetically] and electrically 'opposed' by Particulate flux (i.e. Ions, HENs and, to a lesser extent, HEPs) may measure many times the diameter of Earth *HOWEVER* the mass is negligible - It is the *NUCLEUS* of a comet which is important in discussions of impact energy, perturbation, etc... (Comet nuclei typically measure 1 to 50 Km -10 Km representing an average - While Earth impact would be very, very 'bad' - a close encounter would be without sequela

Please pardon the *ATROCIOUS* grammar apparent in this post! - My brain over runs me fingers (or, is it the converse?)

Very Best Regards
Dan Sarandon

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My formula for success is never to talk about a successful formula, because it's bound to go wrong!

Comets hit the sun quite often. Clearly they do not significantly affect the behavior of the sun. Asteroids occasionally hit the sun as well. There have been several SOHO observations of comets hitting the sun. Comets that we have observed range in size from a few kilometers diameter up to around 100 kilometers in diameter and the majority of comets hitting the sun may well be smaller than 1 kilometer, particularly in the debris from teh Kreutz sugnrazing comets which appear to be the debris from the breakup of a larger comet several thousand years ago. Comet SHoemaker-Levy 9 impacted Jupiter (which is very much smaller than the Sun) and other than some impact scares that lasted about a year, hardly affected Jupiter a bit.

Jim.

Skywatcher

If you're ever concerned about comets hitting the Sun, remember, the Sun is big and comets are tiny.

I find it useful to scale down the local part of the universe by a factor of 1,000,000,000 to put things into context.

If we do that:

The Earth is about 1.27 centimetres in diameter.

The Sun is about 1.4 metres in diameter, and is about 150 metres away from the Earth.

The Moon is about 3 millimetres in diameter, and is about 40 centimetres away from the Earth.

A comet would be maybe 0.01 millimetres in diameter, so compared to a 1.4 metre diameter Sun, would be of negligible importance.

(Incidentally, on this scale, the nearest star would be about 42,500 kilometres away.)

Peter,
Damn, there goes my dream of building a scale model of our universe. Don't have a 200m + room Thanks for the figures though (in metric speak and all)!
Mel.

Fluffis, that's a good link. Now, take a look at that Earth and pick out Manhattan Island. It would make a pretty good sized comet, but on that scale it would be absolutely invisible.

Melanie, if you really want to get a picture of the scale of the universe, I suggest going on the Solar System Walk. I did it myself last year, and it's quite humbling.

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...And that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped. --Sir Bedevere

If anyone wants a good model of the solar system (and most of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way) check out this:

www.shatters.net/celestia

a bit skimpy on information, but the eye candy is great.

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Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

If you look really close, you can see my house in that pic.

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I must not PX. PX is the mind-killer. I will face my PX. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the PX has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Mine too!

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Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Not mine. Dang clouds. :roll:

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

www.shatters.net/celestia

Sigma;
Thank you, a really excellant site...I feel like a space traveler while in it.

No Problem!

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Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

I just downloaded Celestia, Sigma.. what a beautiful program! I love it!

My god.. it's full of stars...

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People that come together. People that fall apart. No-one can stop us now, 'cause we are all made of starstuff.