STEREO Watches the Sun Blast Comet PanSTARRS

  • Released Monday, March 18, 2013
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This movie from the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) shows comet PanSTARRS as it moved around the sun from March 10-15,2013 (repeated three times). The images were captured by the Heliospheric Imager (HI), an instrument that looks to the side of the sun to watch coronal mass ejections (CMEs) as they travel toward Earth, which is the unmoving bright orb on the right. The bright light on the left comes from the sun and the bursts from the left represent the solar material erupting off the sun in a CME. While it appears from STEREO's point of view that the CME passes right by the comet, the two are not lying in the same plane, which scientists know since the comet's tail didn't move or change in response to the CME's passage.

Video of PanSTARRS and three coronal mass ejections CMEs) as viewed by STEREO Behind's HI1 instrument.

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Triptych made from three images of STEREO Behind's view of Comet PanSTARRS.

Triptych made from three images of STEREO Behind's view of Comet PanSTARRS.

Still from STEREO Behind's HI1 instrument showing Comet PanSTARRS and a coronal mass ejection (CME).

Still from STEREO Behind's HI1 instrument showing Comet PanSTARRS and a coronal mass ejection (CME).

Still and original frame sequence from STEREO Behind's HI1 instrument showing Comet PanSTARRS and a coronal mass ejection (CME).

Still from STEREO Behind's HI1 instrument showing Comet PanSTARRS.

Still from STEREO Behind's HI1 instrument showing Comet PanSTARRS.

Still from STEREO Behind's HI1 instrument showing Comet PanSTARRS and the March 15, 2013 coronal mass ejection(CME).

Still from STEREO Behind's HI1 instrument showing Comet PanSTARRS and the March 15, 2013 coronal mass ejection(CME).

Sequence from STEREO Behind's Cor2 instrument showing three CMEs. Two occurred close together on March 12 and 13. The third, and largest, happened on March 15.

Still from STEREO Behind's Cor2 instrument showing the March 15, 2013 coronal mass ejection, or CME.

Still from STEREO Behind's Cor2 instrument showing the March 15, 2013 coronal mass ejection, or CME.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/STEREO

This page was originally published on Monday, March 18, 2013.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:52 PM EDT.

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  • STEREO Views Comet PanSTARRS and CMEs (ID: 2013034)
    Monday, March 18, 2013 at 4:00AM
    Produced by - Robert Crippen (NASA)

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