Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) appears to have satellite moon that orbits it. Can be seen ahead of LOVEJOY on LASCO C3.

Read about that "buddy" this morning

[link to sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil]

Next to last post on the bottom of the page.

man, it looks like it.
where are the suntards!

i wanna know!

maybe its lens flare or even swamp gas!

arrow, knee, now!

seriously though, our life giver is pretty frakken awesome.

our sun, the one true god.

about the satellites we use:

ok, so these things are able to communicate with the earth correct?

there is even one that is almost to the edge of our known solar system..

we can communicate with that,
so why in the hell can i get good cell phone service?

thats suppose to say:
"can not get "

Lasco C3 Movie -- longer Version (At first you will see the smaller sundiving comet past day ago then Lovejoy with his brother in front)
[link to helioviewer.org]


check this Q

Yeah right a comet thats got its own moon even a retard knows that is impossible !!!!!

Thank you Oldmother. I thought I was seeing things.

Namaste.

lol good point.

Thank you IWTB.

LOL

Right now it looks like a big cross hanging in space.
[link to sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov]

Nice catch. There are actually 3 Sun diving Comets. 1 of which has already dived into the Sun.

Reminds me of the statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Yes, it does..... hmmmmmmmm

assuming it's a comet......

Is it some kind of message?

What do you think the object riding parallel to it is????
[link to sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil]

That is neat! Looking forward as it gets closer!

[link to www.youtube.com]

I know that this is just a camera effect, caused by light reflection, nothing more...

But in some moments really looks like a "crucified" person...

Thank you AC.

Wonder what that is???? Doesn't look like Lens Flare or screwed up Pixelation. Anyone seen this in front of any previous comets?

Not lens flare?

its either a pixel or lens flare its a confirmed buddy in front of lovejoy

sometimes they travel together :D

"1900UT: This is too cute: Comet Lovejoy has a friend! Look in the upper-half of the animation opposite, starting at center and moving diagonally up and to the left, perfectly in step with Lovejoy... It's another Kreutz-group comet! (if you can't see it, here's a hint)

As nice as this is, I am not in the least surprised. SOHO's Kreutz-group comets are very "clumpy", for want of a better word. We frequently see them arrive in pairs or sometimes trios, and the big bright ones in particular will often have a companion comet. I suspected we would get at least one with Comet Lovejoy and indeed we do. It's much more typical of the size and brightness of Kreutz comets we see, and offers a wonderful comparison to highlight just how special Comet Lovejoy is.

So what is this new comet called? Is it another "Comet Lovejoy"? Sadly not. It looks to me like it was actually spotted in the LASCO C3 images by seasoned comet hunter Zhijian Xu at Dec 14 2011 11:48:48. So will it be Comet Xu?? No again. It will be Comet SOHO, number 2190-something, I think. Oh, and notice how it's orbit is obviously slightly different from Lovejoy's? That's also something we see all the time; the companion comets are frequently in slightly different orbits. They are obviously closely related though and the smaller one must have fragmented from Lovejoy some significant time ago, and with some slight (non-gravitational) force between them to "push" them apart like this. These kinds of break-ups are theorized to happen decades before they reach the Sun in order for them to have this kind of separation in space, though this process is not well-known or well-understood at all. It one reason that studying these Kreutz comets is so important, as this knowledge can be applied to all comets and solar system bodies, and give a broader understanding of their orbital and physical evolution...."
[link to sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil]



Dec 15th, 2011
1500UT: Welcome to the beginning of the end of Comet Lovejoy's billions of years long journey through space. In less than 10 hours time, the comet will graze some 120,000km above the solar surface, through the several million degree solar corona, and -- in my opinion -- completely evaporate. We have here an exceptionally rare opportunity to observe the complete vaporization of a relatively large comet, and we have approximately 18 instruments on five different satellites that are trying to do just that.....



The STEREO spacecraft are a long way from Earth now, staring at the other side of the Sun, and from the perspective of the STEREO-B satellite the comet's path will be very well placed, taking it right across the disk of the Sun as seen by the EUV imagers on STEREO. And to mark this occasion, the STEREO operations team have an observing plan in place to try and capture the comet, albeit not at quite the high resolution that SDO can achieve.

STEREO observations are available in realtime in low-resolution but you will need to wait for a couple of days for the full-res images. SDO are planning to release the best realtime images they can, and will later on be publishing the url for where you can watch their off-point activities live!

[link to sungrazer.nrl.navy.mil]

If you had a 70 meter antenna attached to your phone you would get great service. That is what is used to communicate with Voyager. One in Australia, one in California, and one in Spain.