NEAT But Not Reassuring

What were you doing on February 17, 2003?

Did you know that date was almost the end of the world?

We narrowly missed annihilation in 2003, and few knew about it.

A comet called NEAT not so neatly came close to impacting the sun. This comet was over twice the size of jupiter. A well-timed solar flare blasted it out of its trajectory orbit and so disaster was avoided.

NASA's SOHO satellite camera caught it all on video. Go here to see the video.

For perspective, the thick dark line at the left bottom is the arm of a mechanism on the camera that holds a plate in front of the sun, to block glare, so that other objects surrounding the sun can be seen. The white circle in the center of that plate represents the size of the sun.

Now, note the large white object entering at the top-right and moving down the screen on the right. This is the NEAT comet. Compare its size to the size of the sun, and you have some idea what it means to say it's over twice the size of Jupiter. The comet narrowly escaped impact with the sun due to that solar flare--or as the scientists call it, CME (Coronal Mass Ejection).

There are at least a thousand comets that orbit the sun, 160 of those that are near enough to be seen via telescope.

So. In 2003, we were all facing the end of the world, and most of us didn't even know.

NEAT But Not Reassuring