On May 13, 2011, at 5:55 PM, Terry Blanton wrote:
I don't believe in them. I have seen this happen more than once in
SOHO videos. A coronal mass ejection corresponds with a comet
collision:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/05/13/stunning-video-comet-
collides-sun/
T
If the earth fell into the sun it should vaporize fairly fast due to
its kinetic energy and high internal solar density. Using 1.979E30 kg
for mass of sun and 860,000 mi for diameter, or 6.92E8 meters, we get
an escape velocity = sqrt (2Gm/r) = 6.18E5 m/s for the sun. That
gives energy/gram = 0.5*(1 gm)*(v^2)/(1 g) = 1.9E8 J/g, or 190
megajoules per gram, or about 29000 times the heat required to
vaporize the iron. That's a total collision energy of (1.9E8 J/g)
(6E27 g) = 1.14E36 J. The sun's output is only 3.8E26 J/s. The
collision energy is thus 2.9 billion seconds, or about 91 years of
solar heat output. If that kind of energy were radiated even over the
period of a year, due to some earth sized body hitting the sun, the
earth would be a very crispy critter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection
states: "Coronal mass ejections reach velocities between 20km/s to
3200km/s with an average speed of 489km/s, based on SOHO/LASCO
measurements between 1996 and 2003. The average mass is 1.6×10^12 kg."
This provides an average CME energy E of:
E = 0.5 m v^2 = 0.5 * (1.6×10^12 kg) * (489 km/s)^2
E = 2x10^23 J
At 190 megajoules per gram gravitational energy, an average CME
generating hit would have to be (2x10^23 J)/(190x10^6 J/gm) = 1x10^12
kg. If we have a density of 7 gm/cm^3, that's (1x10^12 kg)/(7 gm/
cm^3) = 1.5x10^8 m^3. That's an object with a radius of:
v = 3/4 pi r^3
r = (v /((4/3)*Pi))^(1/3) = 330 m
So an asteroid with a radius of 330 m and density near iron can make
an average CME. The equatorial radius of the sun is 7 x 10^8 m, so
such an asteroid would be 4.7x10^-7 the radius of the sun. About 2
million of that sized asteroid would fit across the equatorial
diameter of the sun. It would not be possible to see it except with a
powerful telescope.
By comparison, Haley's comet has a mass of 2x10^14 kg, and density of
around 1 gm/cc^3.
From: http://delhiamateur.tripod.com/howbig.htm
"Comet nuclei come in a range of sizes. Most are between a few and
ten kilometres in size while the largest ones have an average size of
about 20 km. The comet nucleus is nearly 50 % water ice and therefore
the typical density may be around 1 gm/c.c. Thus an average comet has
a mass that is billion times smaller than that of the earth. The
nucleus of comet Halley was found to be peanut shaped by the
spacecraft Giotto, 15 km long and 8 km cross section."
The typical comet has more than enough kinetic energy to generate the
average CME.
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
