Sungrazer Comet (Sunspot 486)
October 28, 2003
On October 28, 2003, the antimatter sungrazer comet collided with the sun and created an enormous sunspot and the third most powerful solar X-ray solar flare on record, a remarkable X17.2 category explosion. The explosion hurled a coronal mass ejection (plasma) toward the Earth. The ejected material traveled towards the Earth at 2145 kilometers per second (7.5 million km/h), verse the normal speed of 400 kilometer per second (1.5 million km/h).. The solar storm caused a blackout in Sweden, damaged two Japanese communication satellites, and upset radio and navigation systems for aircraft and ships. Although our atmosphere protects people on the Earth, passengers and crews on commercial jets could receive exposure equivalent to a normal medical chest X-ray.
On November 4, 2003, physicists upgraded the solar flare to a record-breaking X-45 class. Movies show the solar explosions and flares from the antimatter sungrazer. The solar flares produced x-ray radiation that was equivalent to 5,000 Suns.
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Credit: SOHO - LASCO Consortium, ESA, NASA |
- SOHO Hotshots with movies, X 17.2 + 10.0 Flares, http://sohowww.estec.esa.nl/hotshots/2003_10_28/ & http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/2003_10_28/
- ESA, Enormous X-ray solar flare seen by SOHO (with movie), October 28, 2003, http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEMY3X7O0MD_index_2.html
- SOHO/MDI Consortium pictures of Sunspot caused by antimatter comet colliding with the sun,http://sohowww.estec.esa.nl/data/summary/gif/031028/smdi_igram_fd_20031028_1424.gif & http://sohowww.estec.esa.nl/data/summary/gif/031028/smdi_igram_fd_20031028_0000.gif
- David Webb, Anomalies related to Recent Solar Activity, November 19, 2003, http://beauty.nascom.nasa.gov/~ptg/anomalies.pdf
News Articles:
- CNN News, Sun erupts in biggest storm in years, October 29, 2003, http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/10/28/solar.flare/
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Washington Post, Hot Star of the Week: The Sun's Dramatic
Flare, October 30, 2003;
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A38531-2003Oct29¬Found=true - CNN News, NASA: Solar storm shut down Mars Odyssey tool, November 27, 2003, http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/11/27/mars.odyssey.ap/index.html
- University Today, SOHO Spots a Giant Solar Flare, October 28, 2003, http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/soho_giant_solar_flare.html
- Space News. Japan Loses Contact with Adeos-2 Satellite, October 27, 2003, http://dev.space.com/spacenews/remotesensing/Adeos_1027.html
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Space News, Solar Flare Hobbles Japanese
Communications Satellite, October 29, 2003,
http://dev.space.com/spacenews/asia/flare_102903.html - NewsMax.com Wires, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2003 Japanese Lose Second Communication Satellite, http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/10/30/90139.shtml
- Space Weather, Massive Solar Storms Inflict Little Damage on Earth, November 8, 2003, http://www.agu.org/journals/sw/swa/news/?id=2003SW000042
- BBC News, Flare damages Mars Odyssey probe, November, 28, 2003, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3246722.stm
For more information on antimatter sungrazer comets, please visit American Geophysical Union, Naval Research Laboratory, Science Programs European Space Agency (ESA), Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), NASA, University of Cambridge, and Sebastian's Comet Hunt.