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Post Info TOPIC: Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy)
Blobrana


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Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy)
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Google earth file: Comet C2011 W3 (Lovejoy).kmz (18kb, kmz)

Ed ~ Comet C2011 W3 (Lovejoy) can be seen in the morning sky with the planet Mercury on the 21st December, 2011.



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Blobrana


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Comet Lovejoy
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Comet Lovejoy Almost Plunges into Sun, and Survives



Take a look at the video that goes with this story. It shows a celestial close call -- a comet, called Comet Lovejoy, appearing to plunge headlong into the sun, but finally missing by only 87,000 miles (about a tenth of the sun's diameter) and emerging from behind it.
Comets are devoured by the sun frequently. They are essentially flying snowballs, clumps of rock, dust and ice hurtling through space, and they are easily vaporized by the sun's fierce heat.
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Blobrana


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Comet C/2011 W3 (LOVEJOY)
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Orbital elements:
    C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy)
Epoch 2011 Dec. 10.0 TT = JDT 2455905.5
T 2011 Dec. 16.02093 TT                                 MPC
q   0.0055068            (2000.0)            P               Q
z  +0.0191824      Peri.   54.08201     +0.18325301     -0.90394046
 +/-0.0017362      Node   327.09412     -0.96001876     -0.07994077
e   0.9998944      Incl.  134.66144     +0.21161834     +0.42012036
From 91 observations 2011 Nov. 27-Dec. 8

MPEC 2011 - X36



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Orbital elements:
    C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy)
T 2011 Dec. 15.99997 TT                                 MPC
q   0.0058936            (2000.0)            P               Q
                   Peri.   57.14274     +0.19598427     -0.92474273
                   Node   332.02321     -0.95497993     -0.10442417
e   1.0            Incl.  135.93558     +0.22271842     +0.36598700
From 31 observations 2011 Dec. 1-2.

MPEC 2011 - X16



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A Sungrazer comet was discovered by T. Lovejoy in images taken by the Soho satellite.

TLc001
 Perihelion 2011 Dec 16.004031 TT; Constraint: e=1
Epoch 2011 Dec 2.0 TT = JDT 2455897.5 Earth MOID: 0.5976
 q857339.479km (2000.0) P Q
 H 14.5 G 0.15 Peri. 38.49278 0.14512498 -0.68739520
 Node 302.78125 -0.97794159 0.00955245
 e 1.0 Incl. 122.17378 0.15022974 0.72622075
From 17 observations 2011 Nov. 27-Dec. 2

The orbital elements of the comet indicate a perihelion passage on the 16th December, 2011, at a distance of 1.6 solar radii from the Sun.



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