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What's Up in Space -- 9 Jan 2002
 SPECTACULAR: A brilliant coronal mass ejection (CME) billowed away from the Sun on Tuesday just as periodic comet 96P/Machholz was swinging by our star. Coronagraphs on board the SOHO spacecraft captured both in this 8-hour movie (right). Although the CME appears to envelop the comet, it did not. The expanding cloud raced away from the backside of the Sun. Both the comet and our planet were in the other direction. Comet Machholz was only 0.12 AU from the Sun on Jan. 8th when it reached perihelion (closest approach to the Sun). Our star's blinding glare hid the encounter from human eyes, but not from SOHO coronagraphs, which use opaque disks to block the Sun's light. Unlike many Sun-approaching comets, notably the "Kreutz sungrazers," 96P/Machholz is expected to survive its fiery experience and return again in 2007.
ESA, ESA SOHO, ESA Science, NASA SOHO
This is what came up on my new screensaver just now at 02:30AMCST 01/11/2002. Cutter. Click on image to subscribe to ESA NEWS. ESA, ESA SOHO, ESA Science, NASA SOHO
SOHO real time images screensaver A new computer screen saver made available by the European Space Agency now allows computer users to watch spectacular, almost real-time images of our Sun. Note: This file seemed to have a problem. I used Winzip to extract, then created a self-extracting installer, and imbedded it into a Word 6 document that any PC can access, now it works just fine. You might get a failure notice while downloading images, but that is a server problem, just try again, it's worth it! Download it from my website: Cutter
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