Luminous comet

2003/02/25 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Astrofisika

Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) which we have seen recently has now passed by the Sun. The spectacular images that have surprised astronomers show for the first time the interactions between a comet and the Sun.

Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) was first inspected in November 2002 and as its luminosity has increased, it has become visible in the northern hemisphere. Since February 18 approached the Sun at 14.8 million kilometers from the Sun, the camera of the SOHO satellite is recording its trajectory.

According to the images of this camera, the comet NEAT has a wide dust tail and a weaker gas tail and, according to the researchers, it is the most luminous of the 600 comets that have passed through the satellite view.

The SOHO satellite, which analyses the Sun, has recorded two solar eruptions as the comet passed at a speed of 100 km per second. The first studies say that one of these eruptions has interrupted the comet's gas tail and has extracted part of the dust tail, a phenomenon never seen until now.