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Solar Week - Ask a Question » Archives of previous runs of Solar Week » 2008 March 17-21 » Facts about the Sun » Comet Into Sun

Comet Into Sun

Last post 03-21-2008 4:57 AM by David Alexander. 1 replies.
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  • 03-20-2008 7:47 PM

    Comet Into Sun

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    Shelby (LM) Could a very large comet like the recent comet holmes if it were to hit the sun, cause any changes to the sun? thank you...

  • 03-21-2008 4:57 AM In reply to

    Re: Comet Into Sun

    Reply Contact

    Hello SHelby,

     

    EVen a large comet like comet Holmes has a mass of only about 10^14 kg (100 billion tons).  The Sun's mass is 2 x 10^30 kg (or 2,000 trillion trillion tons).  So the comet would have very little effect on the Sun should it actually survive long enough to hit the Sun,  This is like hitting a large cruise ship with a grain of sand!

     

    David 
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