Sungrazer Comets
When comets breakup, smaller comets and sungrazers are produced as shown in the picture of the Comet 57P/du Toit-Neujmin-Delporte below.
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Like comets, sungrazers create comas and tails as they come close to the sun. The visible sungrazers range in size from 3.5 to 63 meter in diameter. As they approach the sun, sungrazers can break into smaller fragments before colliding into the sun. The picture shows the impacts from the 4,700 metric ton Shoemaker Levy comet that collided with Jupiter between July 16-22, 1994. The 21 fragments produced energy equivalent to 200 million Megaton of TNT.
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When the fragments hit, the explosions were on the back side of Jupiter and were not visible on earth. |
Similar impacts have been seen on the sun’s surface. When sungrazers collide with the sun, the matter-antimatter explosions produce enormous sunspots and solar flares stretching millions of kilometers into space. Every year, the sun attracts hundred of sungrazers, which collide with the sun and produce thousands of sunspots. The explosions range from millions to billions of Megatons of TNT. On July 23, 2002, a 23,000 metric ton antimatter sungrazer created a billion Megatons of TNT explosion that could have supplied the World's total energy needs for 10,000 years.
Another sungrazer created an enormous sunspot and record breaking X-Class Solar Flare on November 5, 2003. Other examples are: December 23, 1996, June 2, 1998, and October 28, 2003. For more information, 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.