Uploaded December 2011 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
As Comet Lovejoy moves toward perihelion this evening we will point SDO a little to the left of the Sun to try and see the tail of the comet in our telescopes.
This website will allow you to see those images and flip through them looking for the comet.
This segment is meant as a teaser to the event. Will this prediction happen or will Comet Lovejoy survive a close encounter with our Sun? Find out here!
sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/lovejoy.php
Select a wavelength on the right and a new window will open with the images available for that wavelength. The Sun will be on the right side of the window. The comet should move from the lower left corner and go behind the Sun a little above the equator.
Images from SDO are available soon after they are observed, but it takes about 30 minutes to move from the spacecraft to our computer at Goddard. We plan to off-point at 23:30 UTC (6:30 pm ET) and return to normal solar observing at 12/16 00:30 UTC (7:30 pm ET). We should see images starting by 7 pm ET.
For up-to-date notes check out NRL's Sungrazing Comets website:
http://sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=news%2Fbirthday_comt_BK#bottom
Credit: NASA STEREO, NASA/ESA SOHO, NRL SECCHI / Sungrazer & Camilla SDO
As Comet Lovejoy moves toward perihelion this evening we will point SDO a little to the left of the Sun to try and see the tail of the comet in our telescopes.
This website will allow you to see those images and flip through them looking for the comet.
This segment is meant as a teaser to the event. Will this prediction happen or will Comet Lovejoy survive a close encounter with our Sun? Find out here!
sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/lovejoy.php
Select a wavelength on the right and a new window will open with the images available for that wavelength. The Sun will be on the right side of the window. The comet should move from the lower left corner and go behind the Sun a little above the equator.
Images from SDO are available soon after they are observed, but it takes about 30 minutes to move from the spacecraft to our computer at Goddard. We plan to off-point at 23:30 UTC (6:30 pm ET) and return to normal solar observing at 12/16 00:30 UTC (7:30 pm ET). We should see images starting by 7 pm ET.
For up-to-date notes check out NRL's Sungrazing Comets website:
http://sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=news%2Fbirthday_comt_BK#bottom
Credit: NASA STEREO, NASA/ESA SOHO, NRL SECCHI / Sungrazer & Camilla SDO
