NASA | Solar Hurricane Tears Off Tail of Comet Encke

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NASA's STEREO satellite captured the first images ever of a collision between a solar "hurricane", called a coronal mass ejection (CME), and a comet. The collision caused the complete detachment of the comet's plasma tail. Scientists believe that the disconnection of Comet Encke's tail was likely triggered by reconnection between the magnetic field around the comet and the field entrained in the CME. This same process takes place in the Earth's magnetosphere during geomagnetic storms.
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