Comet Lovejoy headed straight for our nearest star (the sun) last night, and made a close approach of about 87,000 miles (140,000 kilometers) above the suns surface. This sungrazing comet was predicted to vaporize upon it's close approach. NASAs Solar Dynamic Observatory aimed it's camera at the left side of the sun to get images as Lovejoy made it's approach, and updated with new images added to a time lapse in almost real time via twitter. As SDO got the news so did we, and anyone else following along on twitter last night.
After the comet disappeared behind the sun there was quite a bit of talk online about how unlikely it would be that Lovejoy would reemerge on the other side. After about an hour of it's disappearance on the left side of the sun the word was out – Comet Lovejoy survived perihelion and popped out from behind the sun to show it was not going to let the sun defeat it!
Lovejoy's core is about 660 feet (200 meters) wide, and like all other comets it's made of ice with either a solid ice core or a solid rocky core. This comet gave plenty of warning time for it's close approach to the sun unlike most sungrazing comets that don't show their face until it's almost too late. This warning gave the SDO, SOHO and STEREO satellites the opportunity to train their camera's on Lovejoy and follow it as it made it's death defying plunge towards the sun. I would have put money on it's demise as it was behind the sun, but was pleasantly surprised when it showed it's face reemerging on the other side.
Here is a minute long video put together by @Camilla_SDO of the many views of comet Lovejoys trek near the sun. Images from NASA/ESA SOHO, NASA STEREO, and NASA SDO. This video is great, glad I got to witness it as the news and images came in. Quite the exciting night last night during and for many hours after as everyone was just as surprised as I was when news came in of it's survival. You know how quickly ice can melt on a hot summer day just imagine how much quicker it can happen that close.
Of course with such a close approach comes a consequence. Comet Lovejoy didn't come out of this unscathed it came out with it's head, but it was missing it's tail. Although things could have been worse as this "dirty snowball" was immersed in several million degree temperatures for a little over an hour.
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