image: This is a visualization of the coronal magnetic field through which comet Lovejoy passed. The magenta arc indicates Lovejoy's path, which traversed both open (orange) and closed (blue) magnetic field lines. The unexpected directions and changes in tail motion were found to be consistent with the orientation and variation of the magnetic field along this path, which was determined from a sophisticated computer model of the solar corona. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the June 7, 2013, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by Cooper Downs at Predictive Science Inc. in San Diego, Calif., and colleagues was titled, "Probing the Solar Magnetic Field with a Sun-Grazing Comet." view more
Credit: [Image courtesy of Cooper Downs]