Last updated at 4:58 PM on 4th August 2011
You wait roughly 4.55billion years for something to happen and then it's over so quick you could blink and miss it.
Until the early morning of July 6 this year no-one had ever managed to capture footage of a comet colliding with the sun.
But three whole seconds of on-the-spot action from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory and all that has changed.
Watch the video here....
The video below shows a comet entering at very high speed from the lower right hand side of the screen before disappearing out of sight after grazing the sun's surface.
These sun-grazing comets are not an unusual phenomenon.
They are known as Kreutz comets, named in honour of the 19th century astronomer Heinrich Kreutz who discovered them.
He realised that certain comets were in orbits that would bring them incredibly close to the sun.
Rare sight: The comet enters the video from the bottom right of the screen and quickly disappears in a blaze of heat and radiation
They are thought to be the exploded remnants of one single huge comet that broke up long ago, which explains why they all follow a similar trajectory around the sun.
This particular comet varied slightly from its usual orbit, bringing it into direct collision with the sun but it evaporated in the heat and radiation before impact could take place.
It took 15 minutes for the comet to evaporate completely but this very short yet significant video recounts its very last moments.
Explore more:
- Organisations:
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
04 Aug, 2011--
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2022465/Blink-youll-miss-The-video-showing-comet-crashing-sun.html?ITO=1490
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