watch the video here:

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Dec. 16, 2011: This morning, an armada of spacecraft witnessed something that many experts thought impossible.  Comet Lovejoy flew through the hot atmosphere of the sun and emerged intact.

“It’s absolutely astounding,” says Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC.  “I did not think the comet’s icy core was big enough to survive plunging through the several million degree solar corona for close to an hour, but Comet Lovejoy is still with us.”

The comet’s close encounter was recorded by at least five spacecraft: NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and twin STEREO probes, Europe’s Proba2 microsatellite, and the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

Read the article here:

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/pickoftheweek/old/03dec2011/

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Several views on these sites .. search the date 2011-12-13 through 2011-12-17

http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/images

http://secchi.nrl.navy.mil/index.php?p=js_secchi_day

http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/soho_movie_theater

also.. a 6.3M earthquake along the southwest portion of the pacific ring of fire — north of New Zealand:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc000770k.php

Magnitude 6.3 – SOUTH OF THE KERMADEC ISLANDS

2011 December 15 10:10:08 UTC

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Earthquake Details

• This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

Magnitude	6.3
Date-Time	Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 10:10:08 UTC Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 10:10:08 PM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location	32.604°S, 179.103°W
Depth	34.1 km (21.2 miles)
Region	SOUTH OF THE KERMADEC ISLANDS
Distances	130 km (80 miles) S of L’Esperance Rock, Kermadec Islands 386 km (239 miles) SSW of Raoul Island, Kermadec Islands 734 km (456 miles) NE of Auckland, New Zealand 1107 km (687 miles) NNE of WELLINGTON, New Zealand