A National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellite has captured the first images of a collision between a comet and a solar hurricane.

The April 20 images from a NASA satellite observatory marks the first time scientists have witnessed such an event.

The phenomenon was caused by a coronal mass ejection -- a large cloud of magnetized gas cast into space by the sun. The collision resulted in the complete detachment of the plasma tail of Encke’s comet.

NASA said the images revealed the tail's separation as it was carried away by the front of the ejection.

"We were awestruck when we saw these images," said Angelos Vourlidas, lead author and scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. "This is the first time we've witnessed a collision between a coronal mass ejection and a comet and the surprise of seeing the disconnection of the tail was the icing on the cake."

Coronal mass ejections are violent eruptions with masses greater than a few billion tons, traveling at speeds as high as 2,000 miles per second. They have been compared with hurricanes because of the widespread power and communications disruptions they can cause when they strike the Earth. // Copyright 2007 by United Press International


Publication date: 02 October 2007   

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