March 1, 2003

A "new" comet, C/2002 V1, entered Earth's neighborhood recently and was visible in the evening sky in the constellation of Taurus between January and February, 2003. On February 18, 2003, the comet reached perihelion (its closest approach to the Sun) and as it did a large coronal mass ejection (CME) occurred. The strangest part of the phenomenon, though, is that some photographs of the event seem to have been altered.

A comet is a collection of space debris (mostly ice crystals and dust surrounded by a gaseous envelope) that is held together by gravitational forces. Most of the comet is just empty space. In 1910, the Earth passed through the tail of Halley's Comet, with no ill effects (Moore, Patrick The Picture History of Astronomy, Grosset & Dunlap, NY, 1967).

The most visible feature of a comet is its tail. The tail forms as the comet approaches the Sun, whose solar wind causes the gases to expand and glow in a direction away from the Sun.

Comets orbit the Sun in elliptical orbits. Some comets have relatively short periods of revolution around the Sun. Halley's Comet has a period of 76 years, making it easy to predict its return. Based on the orbit of Comet C/2002 V1, scientists estimate it has a periodicity of 37,000 years.

Comet C/2002 V1 was first detected late last year by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Near Earth Asteroid Tracking program (NEAT). Since then, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), which is a joint European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA space probe to study the Sun, has been observing the comet's encounter with it.

The photographs displayed below were recorded by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO). LASCO blots out the disc of the Sun to create an artificial total eclipse so that the Sun's corona is visible.

Photographs of the comet's close encounter with the Sun reveal a mystery. Both photographs below were taken within the same hour.

The photograph most widely circulated on the Internet is on the left. C/2002 V1 is at the top right, which is northwest (viewing the SOHO photos, reverse the east and west limbs). As the comet heads down towards the western side, a tremendous coronal mass ejection (CME) erupts from the Sun, directly towards the comet.

However, in the photo on the right the CME is coming from the south, yet the comet is still on the right side (west) of the photograph. Mitch Battros, of Earth Changes TV, was the first to notice the discrepancy.



According to Battros, if the CME actually ejected from the south it was in an Earthbound direction. If he is correct, sudden windstorms and spectacular aurora borealis displays may occur as far south as 35° latitude. (Earth Changes TV).

The real question is why there is a discrepancy in the photos. Perhaps, now that it has been noted, members of the scientific community will come forward to explain the disparity.

For more information, see:

European Space Agency
Gary W. Kronk's Cometography
Comet Section of Germany
Earth Changes TV
SOHO NASA 1
SOHO NASA 2