Massive Object flies into the Sun causes even larger explosion

[bobbymike]

Youtube link here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeKwEYieMGw&feature=player_embedded#!

Maybe one of the SP experts can do a size estimate but from my unscientific background this is an earth killing sized object did we know about it here on our little blue marble.

 

[Mike Pryce]

Wow! My first thought was that it looks as large as it does as comets get brighter as they approach the sun (as they boil off their surface) and this one got as close as you can get so had a long, bright tail.

However, the 'explosion' out the other side shows it still had enough mass on impact to have an effect. An ejection of solar material was already underway apparently, so perhaps the impact added a shockwave that further destabilised an already 'wobbly' corona, making the 'explosion' look bigger than it would otherwise have been.

Still, had it hit Earth, I think we would have known about it. If only for a brief moment before we were all snuffed out!

 

[pathology_doc]

The sooner we can routinely find these things and give them a timely sideways nudge with a nuke if they're going to hit, the better. Pace Meteor, Deep Impact and (possibly) Armageddon, blasting them to bits probably isn't an option - and even then we'd have to deal with the fallout...