Comet Lovejoy

duncan124:
Posts about Comet Lovejoy here.

http://www.universetoday.com/106995/subaru-telescope-captures-the-fine-details-of-comet-lovejoys-tail/

Lovejoy like Ison has a corresponding important Earth date.Lovejoy will be closest to the Sun on Christmas day.

duncan124:
Comet finder page from interesting site.
http://www.popastro.com/comet/findercharts/chart.php?id_pag=306

hmmm

duncan124:

http://spaceweather.com

Spaceweather has decided to write something about Lovejoy today!

duncan124:
Other interesting sites are;-

http://inagist.com/all/409357493467217920/

twitter.com/ObservingSpace/status/409357493467217920/photo/1

http://astrofishki.net/news/kometa-c2013-r1-lovejoy-uverenno-priblizhaetsya-k-solncu/

Astrofish is slow to load but has an interesting background pic of rubble in space, in fact close to planets.

duncan124:
Two photos and some sort of matrix

http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=91169&PHPSESSID=q5u1bjpe3pp3ib692fq9b1d390

http://www.astronet.ru/db/msg/1296995/

http://www.gematrix.org/?word=korean%20war%20never%20happened%20vietnam%20war%20never%20happened%20ww2%20and%20ww1%20never%20happened

duncan124:
Recent Lovejoy images.


www.flickr.com/photos/chili5558/11322353894/in/pool-1567431@N22/

watch out for the snow in this one.

http://buffalohair.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/space-wonder-time-lapse-of-comet-lovejoy-spotted-in-china-sky/

http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=91233&PHPSESSID=6bqn21t4nu3obuulukntbrrjs1

duncan124:
"CORONAL HOLE: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is monitoring a large coronal hole in the sun's northern hemisphere. Shown here in an extreme ultraviolet photo taken Dec. 11th, the UV-dark chasm overlies more than 500 billion square kilometers of solar terrain:

Coronal holes are places in the sun's atmosphere where the magnetic field opens up and allows solar wind to escape. A broad stream of solar wind flowing from this particular coronal hole should reach Earth on Dec. 15-17.
The last time a solar wind stream blew past Earth, on Dec. 7th, the impact sparked Northern Lights in the United States as far south as Montana and Michigan. A repeat performance could be in the offing. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras early next week" From Spaceweather.com

Did Ison cause the Coronal Hole? If so will Lovejoy do the same?

duncan124:
Universetoday has an orbital path of comet Lovejoy 2013.

http://www.universetoday.com/106222/tracking-comet-c2013-r1-lovejoy-through-november/

duncan124:
“My space weather colleagues believe that until we have an event that slams Earth and causes complete mayhem, policymakers are not going to pay attention,” said Baker. “The message we are trying to convey is that we made direct measurements of the 2012 event and saw the full consequences without going through a direct hit on our planet.”
The 2012 CME that Baker refers to was the most powerful CME ever recorded with modern technology. The storm managed to reach the Earth’s surface in just 18 hours – less than half the time average CMEs take to reach the planet.
“I liken it to war games — since we have the information about the event, let’s play it through our various models and see what happens,” said Baker. “If we do this, we would be a significant step closer to providing policymakers with real-world, concrete kinds of information that can be used to explore what would happen to various technologies on Earth and in orbit rather than waiting to be clobbered by a direct hit.”
Baker also refers to solar events in 1859 and 1989 as signs of what could happen. The 1859 event, known as the Carrington storm, caused an aurora that could be seen from the Arctic to Central America and caused fires in telegraph offices. In 1989 a solar storm left millions of people in Quebec without power for hours.

http://www.webpronews.com/scientist-warns-of-possible-space-weather-disaster-2013-12

earthsky also has the same story.

duncan124:
' Waiting for...' has some more images of Lovejoy2013

http://waitingforison.wordpress.com/comet-lovejoy/


Comet Lovejoy 2011
http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2011/12/16/lovejoyemerges.m4v

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/16dec_cometlovejoy/

It is fairly obvious, and not a great Scientific discovery in the Internet age, that Comet Lovejoy 2011 did not survive its close encounter with the Sun and what we see leaving the Sun is the same as what we saw of Comet Ison leaving the sun.

Clearly the energy of the Comet was conserved and the sun rays absorbed and replaced the material. What we saw was an energized cloud of CME or Solar wind following the path the incoming comet would have taken.

An incoming Comet that breaks up can cause a large Coronal Hole like the one we saw recently might be also true.

duncan124:
Lovejoy pics;-

www.flickr.com/photos/ilovewalkman/11400451473/

www.flickr.com/photos/pete_collins/11392037623/

www.flickr.com/photos/astronomia5/11364912553/sizes/l/

I don't know where that is but it looks nearby....


www.flickr.com/photos/pete_collins/11391821015/

duncan124:
Or it will be anyway at 11:11 a.m. (CST) tomorrow Dec. 21 when the sun bottoms out in its yearly circuit of the sky

l - See more at: http://astrobob.areavoices.com/#sthash.i9z4FsKu.dpuf

http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/dec2013/friedrichw1220.htm

Probably THE image of Lovejoy 2013, unless it does something else!

duncan124:
"ELECTRIC-BLUE CLOUDS OVER ANTARCTICA: A vast bank of electric-blue clouds has appeared over the south pole, signaling the start of the season for southern noctilucent clouds. According to data from NASA's AIM spacecraft, the clouds appeared earlier than usual this year. Researchers say this could be a sign of climate change:" From spaceweather.com

NASA has this update explination;-



It is far more likely to be space dust that is causing these clouds.

High level flying near these clouds can be dangerous- is dangerous and UFOs are often encountered.

Also the gases NASA claims are an explanation do not travel to or gather at the South Pole I thought.

So this years comets and last years close encounter might be already having effect with more to come?

duncan124:
Interestingly or dangerously research in to the noctilucent clouds at the South Pole also discovered humanoids/fake humans.

Reports of these, including photos of a base, sparked an angry denial from the US military after the US Govt had reviewed the evidence.

Further investigation and photographs caused the United Nations to make a statement condemning the US invasion of Antarctica.

At the time of the cold war it was accepted that the USA had been spotted at work on the rocky shore and it was maintained in most serious newspaper that that was what had been seen.

It was about that time that David Cameron surfaced in the USA .

duncan124:
In fact Wiki has a remarkable page about US McMurdo which includes;-

"Nuclear power 1962-1972"

"On March 3, 1962, operators activated a nuclear power plant at the station. The plant, like nearby Scott's Discovery Hut, was prefabricated in modules. Engineers designed the components to weigh no more than 30,000 pounds (13,608 kg) each and to measure no more than 8 ft 8 inches by 8 ft 8 inches by thirty feet. A single core no larger than an oil drum served as the heart of the nuclear reactor. These size and weight restrictions were intended to allow the reactor to be delivered in an LC-130 Hercules aircraft. However, the components were actually delivered by vessel."

 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMurdo_Station

It also has photos of the base from 1983.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=49600

Snow seems to have obscured the large base in these pictures from NASA.

duncan124:
Lovejoy reaches Perihelion. The only disagreement seems to be when the 25th actually occurs.

So Lovejoy will taking its sharpest turn so far over the next few hours and people are waiting to see what happens.

"Experts recommend evening viewing because the moon may hinder a good sighting before dawn."

http://bowshooter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/comet-lovejoy-c2013-r1-reaches-pivotal.html

http://spaceweathergallery.com/full_image.php?image_name=Michael-JAcger-2012r120131224web_1387867598.jpg


"Earth is closest to the sun in 2014 on January 4. That’s not long after December solstice, when Earth’s Northern Hemisphere is titled most away from the sun for the year. But these two events aren’t related. "

"The December solstice occurs just a few weeks before Earth reaches its perihelion – the point in our world’s orbit in which we are closest to the sun – each year. December solstice always comes around December 21. Perihelion comes in early January. At perihelion in January, Earth is about 147 million kilometers from the sun, in contrast to about 152 million kilometers in July. "

"Are the December solstice and January perihelion related? No. It’s just a coincidence that they come so close together."

"The date of Earth’s perihelion drifts as the centuries pass. These two astronomical events are separated by about two weeks for us. But they were closer a few centuries ago – and in fact happened at the same time in 1246 AD." From;-

http://earthsky.org/space

duncan124:
The 'Prairieastronomyclub' has an excellent image;-

http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/astrophotos/C2013R1L10X1RGB7X1R.JPG

..and considers it has caught the comet ejecting material from the core in this recent picture.

I guess it could also be that the comet is passing close to another small object but as the comet is close its sharp turn the odds are for the idea it is changing at the core.

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/6271692/Main/6270792

duncan124:
Spaceweather has a story about noise from space with a link to the recording. Possibly a ' side effect ' of the comets. Dust could be causing electrical storms on other planets.

duncan124:
Astro Bob reminds us that of two more comets in 2014.

"Looking ahead to 2014 there are at present just two comets beside Lovejoy that will wax bright enough to see in binoculars and possibly with the naked eye: C/2012 K1 PanSTARRS and C/2013 A1 Siding Spring. The first will be easy to track in a small telescope from mid-spring through early summer for northern hemisphere observers as it makes its way from Bootes across the Big Dipper and down through Leo the Lion. - See more at: http://astrobob.areavoices.com/#sthash.Ic7Ea6VC.dpuf "

duncan124:
Astrobob now has a recent picture.

http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2013/12/28/comet-lovejoy-keeps-on-giving-bright-comet-prospects-for-2014/

Spaceweather.com said something foolish about there being close to 0 chance of Solar Flares and now after several flares has this story.

"MINOR RADIATION STORM IN PROGRESS: Energetic protons are swarming around Earth on Dec. 29th following a magnetic eruption near the western limb of the sun: movie. The ongoing radiation storm ranks S1 on NOAA storm scales, which means it is a relatively minor storm with little effect on spacecraft and high-altitude aviation."

Perhaps it is related to the dark clouds reported elsewhere and to someones research work!

duncan124:
Comet Lovejoy looking a bit powerful in this photo by Wolfgang Vollmann;-

http://www.astrobin.com/70728/

The change of course hasn't had any other effect it seems.

duncan124:
Michael Jäger has another good image of Lovejoy.

http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=92801

News about the comet is quiet and not much science is being done about it it seems.

The large holes in the sun where probably Comet Ison crashed in to it and the sudden appearance of NEOs which might be debris from the various comets and asteroids crashing on to the Earth have caught the headlines.