Comet Lovejoy 2011-12-15/16 (SDO AIA 171Å) HD

On December 15, 2011, the Comet Lovejoy entered the Sun’s atmosphere. It got within 90,000 miles of the surface of the Sun, a region where temperatures reach about 2 million degrees Fahrenheit. The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite caught images of the comet as it entered the atmosphere, passed behind the Sun, and reappeared on the other side about a half hour later. This video shows the event as seen by the 171Å filter of the satellite’s AIA instrument. The frames of the video are made from 170 unique images captured at about one minute intevals. The result is a view of the event sped up by nearly 250 times.