* Astronomy

STEREO, SOHO spacecraft catch comet diving into sun

Solar physicists at the University of California, Berkeley, have tracked a comet through the low solar atmosphere, deeper into the sun than ever before, before it presumably evaporated in the 100,000-degree heat.
Using instruments aboard NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft, four post-doctoral fellows at UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory were able to track the comet as it approached the sun and estimate an approximate time and place of impact. STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory), launched in 2006, consists of identical spacecraft orbiting the sun, one ahead of Earth and one behind Earth, providing a stereo view of the sun.
Read more

A space telescope caught the giant comet's extraordinary final hours as it made a dive of death into the sun.
The cosmic missile, with a head the size of the Isle of Wight and a tail many millions of miles long appeared in pictures being taken by a NASA satellite on Friday.

"A comet like this will be like no more than an annoying fleabite for the sun" - Robin Scagell, vice-president of the Society for Popular Astronomy.

Source