[meteorite-list] Can sungrazing comets trigger CMEs?

From: Matson, Robert D. <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2011 11:04:37 -0700
Message-ID: <9180F6B27399C541B10663E21C8BDE9201D45005_at_0461-its-exmb09.us.saic.com>

Hi Steve,

There is some evidence supporting the theory of sungrazing comets
occasionally triggering CMEs. There have been at least a dozen of
these "coincidences" in the past decade that I've been comet hunting,
which at first glance may not seem like a lot (given that there
have been over 2000 sungrazers since SOHO launched). But most of
these comets are extremely faint; only the largest Kreutz comets
seem to be associated with these CME coincidences.

That said, there have been some very large Kreutz comets that did
NOT have CMEs associated with them, and of course most CMEs occur
when no sungrazers have impacted recently. My idea is that these
sungrazing comets don't ~cause~ CMEs, but rather that larger
comets can act as *seeds* for triggering the timing of a CME
that was already imminent. An analogy might be the triggering
of terrestrial lightning strikes by launching small rockets
trailing conductive wire during thunderstorms. Lightning is
going to happen, whether the rockets are launched or not -- but
the location and timing of the lightning is controllable.

--Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Steve
Witt
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 7:58 PM
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com; Count Deiro
Cc: imca at imcamail.de
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] THE SUN EATS A COMET?

Count and List,

Just to be clear the comet and the CME have nothing to do with each
other, just a cool coincidence.

Best,
Steve


Steve Witt
IMCA #9020
http://imca.cc/


--- On Tue, 5/17/11, Count Deiro <countdeiro at earthlink.net> wrote:

> From: Count Deiro <countdeiro at earthlink.net>
> Subject: [meteorite-list] THE SUN EATS A COMET?
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Cc: imca at imcamail.de
> Date: Tuesday, May 17, 2011, 9:29 PM
>
> Hello Listees,
>
> This posted on LiveLeak a an hour or so ago. It purports to show a
> comet captured by the Sun.
>
> http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6c1_1305678323
>
> Regards,
>
> Count Deiro
> IMCA 3536
Received on Wed 18 May 2011 02:04:37 PM PDT