Speaker 1: Get ready to look up and maybe, uh, fasten your
seat belts, because the inner Solar system is currently acting
a bit like a cosmic freeway during rush.
Speaker 2: Hour, it's a good way to put it.
Speaker 1: We're not just observing a few straight comets here and there.
We're tracking what astronomers are calling well, an unprecedented swarm
of major celestial objects.
Speaker 2: That's right, seven distinct, quite volatile bodies, and.
Speaker 1: They're all making these rapid successive close approaches to the
Sun and Earth basically between now and the end of
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: The word unprecedented really does apply here. It's partly the
sheer quantity, but also how synchronized.
Speaker 1: Their approach seems to be synchronized.
Speaker 2: Yeah, two objects have already passed their closest point to
the Sun, their perihelium, but the other five they're all
barreling toward that critical zone in the next few months.
Speaker 1: Okay, And this isn't just about pretty pictures for amateur astronomers.
Speaker 2: Oh definitely not. I mean, the views could be amazing,
but this level of synchronized volatile activity actually fund mentally
changes the electromagnetic dynamics of the space right around our
star right.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this a bit. Our mission today for
you listening is really to cut through the maybe complex
astronomical data and give you a shortcut to being completely informed.
Speaker 2: At deep dive, you could say, exactly.
Speaker 1: We're diving deep into these seven travelers, where they're going,
what they're made of, the physics of how they interact with.
Speaker 2: The Sun, and especially why one of them is being
called an interstellar heavyweight. That one could sort of change
our definition of space debris.
Speaker 1: And maybe most importantly, how this intense influx of dusty
volatile plasma relates directly to changes we see in the
Sun's activity, things like big solar flares and coronal mass ejections, CMEs.
Speaker 2: That connection between the commets and the Sun's behavior, that's
really the core takeaway here as well. Think about it,
When you inject seven large electrically active bodies into the
inner Solar system, you're essentially throwing seven big disruptors onto
an already highly charged electrical circuit.
Speaker 1: And we're heading towards solar maximum anyway, right the Sun's
activity is already ramping up.
Speaker 2: Precisely, we're nearing that peak period. So the interaction between
these enormous plasma bubbles from the comets and the Sun's
own electromagnetic field lines. That's where the physics gets really fascinating.
Speaker 1: It creates a very dynamic environment.
Speaker 2: Extremely it promotes instability and potentially well cosmic fireworks.
Speaker 1: Okay, so when we talk about these objects influencing solar dynamics,
we have to start by accepting that space, especially near
the Sun, isn't just empty vacuum.
Speaker 2: Not at all. It's a highly energized electromagnetic environment.
Speaker 1: So how should we picture this circuit that these icy
bodies are flying into.
Speaker 2: Think of the inner Solar system maybe as a giant
energetic engine. We all know about the solar wind, right,
that steady stream of charged particles flowing out.
Speaker 1: From the Sun pushing everything away, right.
Speaker 2: But for the system to be electrically stable, there has
to be a return path. The circuit needs to complete,
and the closer you get to the Sun, the stronger
these electric circuits and magnetic fields become much stronger.
Speaker 1: And this is where that idea of the inward flowing
electric current comes in. That's often hard to visualize because,
like you said, we mostly hear about the solar wind
pushing things out exactly.
Speaker 2: It's a bit counterintuitive, but there's this constant, powerful flow
of energy and electric current that spirals in along the
ecliptic plane. That's the sort of flat plane where the planet's.
Speaker 1: Orbit spirals in. Not a straight line, no, it follows.
Speaker 2: The geometry of the interplanetary magnetic field, which itself has
a spiral shape due to the Sun's rotation. So these
inward currents mean objects farther out can actually exert an
energetic influence on the region closer to the Sun. Okay,
so when a comet, which is fundamentally a complex electrical
system itself.
Speaker 1: Wait, a comet is an electrical system.
Speaker 2: In a way. Yes, it's interacting electrically. When it flies
into this highly charged inward spiraling energy field. It acts
almost like a massive short circuit or maybe a capacitor
suddenly introduced into this system.
Speaker 1: So if the inter solar system is a circuit, the
comet is this component that suddenly lights up and starts
affecting the whole thing.
Speaker 2: You got it, Which makes the comets composition absolutely critical.
What makes is volatile material different from just a simple
dirty snowball.
Speaker 1: Right, what's the key difference?
Speaker 2: Plasma? The key difference is plasma. A comet starts as
a mix of dust, frozen water, various frozen gases like methane, carbon.
Speaker 1: Dioxide, the dirty snowball part.
Speaker 2: The dirty snowball part initially, but as it gets closer
to the Sun, the heat and radiation cause these volatile
materials to sublimate turned directly into gas. Okay, but in
space gas doesn't stay neutral for long. The intense solar radiation,
the UV light strips electrons off the gas atoms. That
process is called ionization, and it turns that gas into
an electrically charged fluid plasma.
Speaker 1: Plasma the fourth state of matter. I remember that from school.
It behaves differently.
Speaker 2: Differently, it conducts electricity, it responds instantly to magnetic fields.
So the cometary tail isn't just smoke or gas. It's
a mix of neutral gas, tiny ice crystals, dust, and crucially,
this electrically charged plasma.
Speaker 1: And the amount of plasma varies.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, It depends entirely on how intense the solar
radiation is at that moment and the solar wind conditions.
It's flying through this whole structure, the coma and the
tail sometimes millions of kilometers long. Becomes like a giant
natural electromagnetic antenna feeding back into the solar system's circuitry.
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, that immediately clears up that misconception about the tail.
Most people, myself included, sometimes instinctively think the tail just
trails behind where the comet's going.
Speaker 2: It's a very common mistake, often from textbook diagrams that oversimplify.
Speaker 1: But if it's driven by radiation and plasma forces from
the Sun.
Speaker 2: Then the tail has to point away from the Sun always.
It's formed by two main forces, the Sun's radiative pressure
photons literally pushing the dust particles, and the pressure from
the solar wind the charge particles pushing.
Speaker 1: The plasma, both coming from the Sun.
Speaker 2: Both originating at the Sun. So the tails, both the
dust tail and the plasma or ion tail, always point
directly away from the Sun. Doesn't matter if the comet
is speeding toward the Sun or flying away from it.
Speaker 1: I always think back to comet love Joy in twenty
eleven that one survived a really close pass right.
Speaker 2: It did a sungrazer that made it and as it.
Speaker 1: Flew back out away from the Sun, you could literally
see its massive tail pointing ahead of it, leading the
way because the Sun was behind it.
Speaker 2: A perfect illustration of the physics in action. And often
we even see multiple tails multiple Yeah, you might see
a slightly curved, yellowish dust tail which responds more to
sunlight pressure and orbital mechanics, and a much straighter, often bluish,
highly energetic ion tail. That ion tail is the plasma component,
and that's.
Speaker 1: The one that really interacts electrically.
Speaker 2: That's the key one for the electromagnetic interaction. Because plasma
is so reactive to magnetic fields. The iontail interacts violently
with the magnetic field lines stretching out from the Sun,
the interplanetary magnetic field now violently. Well, when the Comets
plasma field intersects the Sun's magnetic field lines in just
the right way, it can facilitate something called magnetic reconnection,
a massive, often exclusive release of stored magnetic energy.
Speaker 1: Ah Okay, So when we see a big solar flare
or a CME eruption, that's energy that was already building
up in the Sun's magnetic field correct, and the Commets
plasma tail can act as sort of a trigger or
maybe a catalyst that helps release that energy faster.
Speaker 2: That's a very good way to think about it, it's
an external influence that can promote instability in the Sun's
already complex magnetic structures. It provides a pathway for that
energy release.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't cause the flare out of nothing, but
it can help set it off.
Speaker 2: Precisely, it's a mechanism for instability. And having seven highly
volatile plasma producing structures all flying through the inner Solar
System relatively close together, it means we have potentially seven
sights for these kinds of interactions over a very short period.
Speaker 1: That's why this form is so interesting to heliophysicists, the
scientists who study the Sun.
Speaker 2: Absolutely it's a natural laboratory for these kinds of interactions.
Speaker 1: Okay, of these seven objects, one really stands out, not
just for its size or activity, but for where it
came from. Let's talk about three iatless.
Speaker 2: Ah Yes, three IAD glass. That's the true heavyweight of
this group and maybe the key driver of the electromagnetic
changes we're anticipating. What makes it a heavyweight and what
does I in three I mean The eye stands for interstellar.
This object isn't from our Solar systems ort cloud or
Kuiper Belt like most comets, it came from somewhere else
entirely another star system.
Speaker 1: Wow, okay, and it's acting differently.
Speaker 2: Very differently. It was classified as very very active the
moment it was detected, way out beyond the orbit of Jupiter.
That's unusual, tilely anomalous at that distance. Solar heating is
minimal for it to be off gassing so vigorously, releasing
so much gas and dust. Well, it suggests either it
has an incredibly high concentration of materials that turn to
gas very easily, maybe ices we don't typically see in
our local comets, or perhaps its structure retains internal heat
much better.
Speaker 1: And the scale of this activity, particularly it's coma that
bubble of gas and plasma around it. The numbers are
just staggering.
Speaker 2: They really are. The nucleus itself. The solid bit is
hard to measure precisely, maybe somewhere between five kilometers and
an upper estimate of forty six kilometers across, So pretty big, yes,
But the solid part is almost secondary here. What matters
more is the electromagnetic footprint. Recent measurements of its CO
two coma, this dense surrounding bubble of gas and plasma
showed it measured about seven hundred thousand kilometers across seven.
Speaker 1: Hundred thousand kilometers. That's let me think the Sun's diameter
is about one point four million kilometers, so its com
is half the width of the Sun.
Speaker 2: Exactly half the diameter of our star. It's difficult to
wrap your head around a nucleus maybe only tens of
kilometers wide, creating a plasma field.
Speaker 1: That enormous, and that was measured a while ago, weeks ago.
Speaker 2: Yes, as it continues its journey inward toward perihelium, that complex,
dusty plasma bubble is expected to grow even larger. It
could potentially encompass an area equivalent to the Sun's full diameter.
Speaker 1: But its mass is still tiny compared to the Sun, right.
Speaker 2: Oh, negligible, infinitesimal really, But its volume of highly reactive
plasma is immense. That's why the size of the coma
matters more electromagnetically speaking, than the size of the solid nucleus.
It's the plasma that drives the interaction.
Speaker 1: Okay, so if we connect this huge plasma bubble to
the Britter picture, it's going to interact with the basic
architecture of the solar system. Things like the heliosphere current
sheet and the interplanetary magnetic field. Can you break those
down quickly? Heliosphere current shed se right.
Speaker 2: Imagine, the Sun's magnetic field isn't just a simple bar
magnet field. Because the Sun rotates, the field gets drawn
out into a large spiral structure throughout the Solar System.
Think of it like a ballerina skirts whirling outwards. The
heliospheric current sheet is like the wavy hem of.
Speaker 1: That skirt, a giant wavy sheet separating north and south
magnetic polarities.
Speaker 2: Exactly. It's this enormous boundary where the polarity the Sun's
extended magnetic field flips everything in the Solar System. All
the planets are embedded within or passed through this sheet,
and the interplanetari magnet field is just the Sun's magnetic
field lines carried outward by the solar wind embedded within
that current sheet structure.
Speaker 1: So three IE class with its absolutely massive, highly energetic
plasmo Coma is about to physically plow through this main
magnetic structure of the Solar System.
Speaker 2: Yes, its huge plasma bubble will disrupt this wavy current sheet.
It will cause localized distortions in the interplanetary magnetic field lines,
and that kind of disruption punching through the current sheet
is a known catalyst for triggering magnetic reconnection events closer
to the Sun.
Speaker 1: Thereby promoting more solar activity, more flares, more CMEs.
Speaker 2: That's the spectation, a higher chance of CMEs, potentially some
directed towards Earth, especially given the timing with solar maximum.
Speaker 1: And the source of this huge disruption is the real
mystery its interstellar origin. It could be from a star
system hundreds maybe thousands of light years.
Speaker 2: Away, could be five hundred, could be five thousand late
years away. That's the most fascinating cart Unlike our local comments,
which formed along with our Sun and planets about four
point five billion years ago.
Speaker 1: We kind of know what they're made of.
Speaker 2: We have a good idea, yes, But three eye atlases
formed somewhere else, entirely orbiting a different star, maybe billions
of years ago. We simply don't know its precise chemical makeup,
its volatile content, how its structure even survived potentially billions
of years of interstellar travel.
Speaker 1: So it's a complete unknown variable interacting with our home system.
Speaker 2: For possibly the very first time in its existence. This
ambiguity means we don't fully understand how it will react
when it gets really enticely heated by our Sun near perihelion.
As a layer of profound mystery, let's.
Speaker 1: Nail down the key dates for this inter cellar heavyweight.
When is it really making its presence felt?
Speaker 2: The climax seems to be the end of October this year,
twenty twenty five. On October twenty first, three, i Atlas
reaches what's called superior conjunction, meaning it's positioned on the
opposite side of the Sun from Earth. This maximizes its
proximity to the Sun's most active magnetic regions from our perspective,
enhancing its potential influence.
Speaker 1: Okay, and then.
Speaker 2: Then just eight days later, on October twenty ninth, it
reaches perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun.
Speaker 1: But it's not a sungrazer, right. It doesn't skim the
Sun's surface.
Speaker 2: No, that's important. It doesn't cut within Mercury's orbit like
some comets do. Its perihelium is safely just inside the
orbit of Mars.
Speaker 1: But still close enough for its huge plasma bubble to
cause effects.
Speaker 2: Absolutely that rapidly expanding plasma bubble will be fully immersed
in the intense solar wind near the Sun, and it
will be crossing the heliosphere current sheet during that entire
critical week October twenty first of twenty ninth. That whole
period promotes significant solar instability.
Speaker 1: Okay, that sets up the immediate dynamics for the end
of this year. But there's a follow on implication something
that happens later in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's the long term puzzle, and it's really quite exciting.
Speaker 1: What is it?
Speaker 2: Well, as three iotlas flies through its off gasing huge
amounts of material, not just gas but dust, grains, tiny particles,
it leaves this stream, this trail of debris along its orbital.
Speaker 1: Path, like canceling Gretel, but with interstellar.
Speaker 2: Dust sort of. Yes, and Earth's orbit is predicted to
cross that debris trail sometime in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: We're going to fly through its way exactly.
Speaker 2: Given its interstellar makeup, we could potentially be traversing materials,
sampling dust grains that have never been encountered before in
our solar system.
Speaker 1: What would be in there?
Speaker 2: Who knows? Unknown elements, complex organic molecules formed in a
totally different environment, distinct isotopic signatures that tell us about
its home star system. It's an incredible, unprecedented opportunity for
scientific collection, maybe via high altitude aircraft or even just
analyzing meteor data, even if the materials only microscopic dust.
Speaker 1: The idea that we could be sweeping up particles from
a system potentially thousands of light years away just by
flying through the path that left behind, that's genuinely mind bending.
Speaker 2: It adds a whole other dimension to this event, beyond
the immediate fireworks.
Speaker 1: All right, let's shift gears a bit. We've talked about
the physics and the big interstellar player three IAT lists.
Now let's look at the sheer, quantity and proximity of
the rest of the swarm, because it's this concentration of
objects that really makes the twenty twenty five electromagnetic signature
so unusual.
Speaker 2: Yes, the combined effect is significant.
Speaker 1: So to help everyone keep track, let's maybe run through
the remaining objects chronologically based on when they make their
closest approach to the Sun their perihelium. Sounds good, We
should probably mention, just to set the scene that C.
Twenty twenty two E three ZTF was a notable one earlier,
and CE twenty twenty two and two Pan stars already
passed its peri helion back in July, way out at
three point eight two AU, near Jupiter's orbit, So the
clock has sort of been ticking.
Speaker 2: Right pantsers, kick things off, But now we're focusing on
the objects making serious incursions into the inner Solar System,
where the electromagnetic action is much more intense.
Speaker 1: Okay, starting with the most recent arrival, the one discovered
quite late CE twenty twenty five, are too Swan. This
one caused a bit of buzz because it was found
so close to its perihelium.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, that's right. Swan reached perihelium just recently on
September twelfth, and it got close point five astronomical units
or AU.
Speaker 1: Point five AU. Yeah, that's half the distance between the
Earth and Sun, so just outside Mercury's orbit exactly.
Speaker 2: Comments that get that close are highly energized by the Sun.
But what makes Swan really vital for us on Earth
is its incredibly close approach to our planet coming up soon.
Speaker 1: How is that?
Speaker 2: Its closest approach to Earth is October twenty first, and
it gets remarkably close, just point two five au.
Speaker 1: A quarter of the Earth Sun distance. That's less than
twenty five million miles. Extremely close in cosmic.
Speaker 2: Terms, it is. And here's where the timing gets really interesting,
creating a kind of synergy. October twenty first, Swan's closest
approach to Earth is the exact same date that the
interstellar heavyweight three I analysts is that superior conjunction on
the far side of the Sun, maximizing its potential disturbance.
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, so we have Swan, a very active comet
practically in our backyard electromagnetically speaking, along the ecliptic plane,
while Atlas is potentially causing the biggest stir over on
the Sun's side at the same.
Speaker 2: Time exactly maximum external perturbation coinciding with maximum internal proximity
to Earth. It sounds like a recipe for a very
dynamic day for space weather watchers.
Speaker 1: Definitely. And what about seeing Swan? Can we see it
right now?
Speaker 2: It's around magnitude seven or maybe six, so you need
binoculars or a small telescope from a dark site. But
it's already developed a spectacular structure. Observers are reporting a
super long tail stretch about two point five degrees across
the sky two and.
Speaker 1: A half degrees for anyone listening, How big is that visually?
Speaker 2: That's five times the visual width of the full moon.
Speaker 1: Five full moons lined up. That's an enormous span of
plasma up there, even if the main head isn't naked
eyebright yet.
Speaker 2: It's a stunning visual conformation of these massive plasma antenna
we were talking about. It really shows the incredible volume
of material being ionized.
Speaker 1: Okay, who's next? In September?
Speaker 2: Following quickly after Swan. Still in September, we have four
hundred and fourteen piece stereo.
Speaker 1: Four to fourteen piece stereo. What's its story?
Speaker 2: This one hits perihelium on September twenty seventh at point
five to two AU, almost identical solar proximity to Swan.
What's interesting about its trajectory is that it came in
from high above the ecliptic plane the plane of the
planet's orbits, Okay, and it's swinging down below it as
it goes around the Sun.
Speaker 1: Does that matter coming in at an angle?
Speaker 2: It can, yes, comments that plunge across the ecliptic plane
like this cut across the interplanetary magnetic field lines at
a sharper angle. This can sometimes generate unique, powerful magnetic
l connection events that are different from those caused by
objects that stay closer to the plane. It adds another
layer of complexity to the interactions.
Speaker 1: All right, Now we move into October, which sounds like
the month of maximum convergence. I start with another one
discovered by the ATLA survey C twenty twenty five K
one Atlas.
Speaker 2: Yes C twenty twenty five K one Atlas reaches perihelion
on October eighth, and this one gets extremely close to
the Sun only point three three au.
Speaker 1: Point three three au that puts it well inside the
orbit of.
Speaker 2: Mercury, deep inside Mercury's orbit, and like four fourteen P Stereo,
it's also zipping below the ecliptic plane during its close pass.
Speaker 1: So we have multiple objects getting very close inside or
just outside Mercury's orbit and crossing the main orbital plane
from different angles, all around the same time.
Speaker 2: Exactly. It's this concentration, this traffic jam, if you will,
of plasma structures all intersecting the Sun's most active magnetic
regions simultaneously. That's what makes the overall electromagnetic activity potentially
so high.
Speaker 1: So if we step back and look at October as
a whole, it really seems like that week between October
twenty first and the twenty ninth is the absolute critical period,
the one we really need to watch.
Speaker 2: That is definitely the most volatile window you've got the
twenty first three I atlass at superior conjunction potentially disrupting
the Helio spirit current sheet, while C twenty twenty five
R two swan makes it super close approach to Earth
at point twenty five AU. Okay, Then just eight days later,
on the twenty ninth, the interstellar heavyweight three I less
itself hits perihelion, albeit inside Mars orbit.
Speaker 1: It's this unique combination major plasma body is near the Sun,
coinciding with the peak of the solar activity cycle.
Speaker 2: It means we should probably anticipate more frequent space weather alerts,
maybe heightened Aurora visibility if CMEs hit Earth, and certainly
intense observation campaigns by solar physicists.
Speaker 1: Moving into November, we finally get to the one that
might offer the best show for US regular folks looking
up see twenty twenty five A six lemon. This sounds
like the one to set our alarms for.
Speaker 2: Absolutely If you want to see one of the lemon
is probably your best bet. It reaches perihelion on November
eighth at a distance of point five to three AU,
similar to Swan and Stereo.
Speaker 1: But it's expected to be much brighter.
Speaker 2: Yes, Kurt forecasts are very exciting. It's expected to be
the brightest comet of the entire swarm, potentially reaching an
apparent magnitude of four maybe even three point five.
Speaker 1: Okay, magnitude three point five For listeners not familiar with
the magnitude skill, what does that actually mean? Can you
see it?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, that means it should be easily visible to
the naked eye, even from areas with some mild light pollution.
For comparison, the faintest stars you can typically see under
really dark skies are around magnitude six. Magnitude three point
five is brighter than many of the stars in well
known constellations, like the stars and the handle of the
Big Dipper, or maybe the brighter stars in the Little Dipper.
Speaker 1: So no binoculars needed, just clear skies and knowing where
to look exactly.
Speaker 2: It should be quite noticeable.
Speaker 1: That's great news. Why is lemon expected to be so
much brighter than the others even though it's not getting
the absolute closest to the Sun. Is it just bigger?
Speaker 2: Not necessarily bigger, It's more about favorable geometry pure viewing angle.
We get a kind of front row seat from Earth's perspective.
Speaker 1: How So c.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty five A six lemon will be in a
very favorable position in the sky when it's at its brightest,
especially for observers in the northern hemisphere. It'll be well
placed high above the ecliptic plane. Its angle relative to
Earth and the Sun will maximize the amount of sunlight
scattered off its dust and gas back.
Speaker 1: Towards us, so we see more reflected light.
Speaker 2: Precisely, it creates potentially the most luninous and sustained viewing
opportunity of this entire swarm. It could be the real
visual showstopper.
Speaker 1: Excellent, okay, And wrapping up this intense period of close approaches,
there's one more scheduled perihelion right two forty p.
Speaker 2: Last one on the current schedule guests two hundred and
forty pa passes perihelion on December nineteenth.
Speaker 1: Is this one similar to the others?
Speaker 2: Structurally it's a bit different. It's a cyclical comet what
we call a short period object, meaning it returns to
the Inner Solar System relative frequently, unlike the others, which
might be on their first trip in from the Orc
cloud or an Atlas's case, from interstellar space.
Speaker 1: So it's more of a local resident.
Speaker 2: Kind of if its perihelion is also much further out
at two point one twelve AU, that's beyond Mars's orbit,
closer to the asteroid belt or Jupiter's.
Speaker 1: Influence, so not as dramatic an approach, not as close.
Speaker 2: No, But the fact that even this more distant regular
visitor is showing up during this hyperactive period just adds
to the overall theme. The Inner Solar System is exceptionally
crowded with volatile objects right now.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we have this sheer number of plasma tailed
comets converging near the Sun right when the Sun is
near its activity peak solar maximum. The question seems to
be not if we'll see some cosmic fireworks, but maybe
when and how dramatic they might be.
Speaker 2: That's a fair assessment.
Speaker 1: What's the most let's say sought after visible event that
observers both professional and amateur are hoping to catch during
this period.
Speaker 2: Well, visually, the most dramatic and probably scientifically interesting event
is something called a tail disconnection.
Speaker 1: Event or td ail disconnection event.
Speaker 2: And given the current density of bright comets with substantial
plasma tails and the intensity of solar maximum activity, the
likelihood of seeing one or more visible TDEs is well
significantly elevated.
Speaker 1: I can picture the effect, that's Jale breaking off. But
let's dig into the physics a bit more. How does
a big solar eruption physically disconnect a comet's tail and
what happens to the tail afterward.
Speaker 2: It's really a profound demonstration of electromagnetic forces in action
on a grand scale. A TDE typically happens when a
powerful eruption from the Sun, specifically a coronal mass ejection
a CME.
Speaker 1: That huge bubble of plasma and magnetic field that explodes
off the Sun.
Speaker 2: Exactly when that CME slams into the comet's existing plasma tail,
the ion tail. Specifically, Remember that ion tail is highly charged,
it has its own weak magnetic field, and it's essentially
anchored electrically speaking to the comet's nucleus right. The CME, however,
carries a much stronger embedded magnetic field. When the CME's
field lines encounter the comet's tail field lines, they can
basically override them through magnetic reconnection.
Speaker 1: So the CME's magnetic field effectively cuts the magnetic connection
between the comet's nucleus and its tail, like cutting in
a bilical cord.
Speaker 2: That's a great analogy. The CME's magnetic field lines literally
sweet past the comet, causing magnetic reconnection on a massive
scale that instantly shears the existing plasma tail off from
the comet's head.
Speaker 1: The coma wow, and the tail just floats away pretty much.
Speaker 2: The disconnected tail, which can be millions of kilometers long,
then just drifts away with the solar wind. It's often
visible for hours, sometimes even days, as a distinct structure,
slowly fading as it dissipates.
Speaker 1: And the comet does it just stop having a tail?
Speaker 2: Oh No. As soon as the main disrupting influence of
the CME passes, the nucleus immediately starts ionizing new gas,
forming a brand new plasma tail, which again points directly away.
Speaker 1: From the sun rapid reformation must be incredible to witness
seeing a new tail grow back.
Speaker 2: It is, and it reinforces the physics we talked about earlier.
The tail direction is dictated by the Sun, not the
comet's motion.
Speaker 1: Do we have actual visual proof of this happening? Have
we seen it clearly?
Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely. There's a famous example from October third, two
thousand and seven. Images I believe from the Stereo spacecraft
clearly showed a CME hitting Comet inc. You could see
the CME wave wash over the comet and then visibly
see the comet's plasma tail completely detach and drift away.
Speaker 1: Incredible direct visual evidence.
Speaker 2: Perhaps the best visual evidence we have of the raw
power of the Sun's magnetic output interacting with another body
in space. It shows how dynamic these cosmic electric circuits
really are.
Speaker 1: So with potentially seven bright targets flying through the Sun's
most active zones during solar Maximum, it.
Speaker 2: Would actually be quite surprising if we didn't get multiple
well observed, maybe even ground visible disconnection events over the
next few months. The odds are just much higher than usual.
Speaker 1: Beyond just looking up from Earth, the really detailed conformation
often comes from specialized scientific instruments right which solar monitoring
tools are best suited to catch this swarm in action.
Speaker 2: We rely heavily on instruments called coronagraphs, primarily those on
space missions like SOHO, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory and
the STEREO Spacecraft Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory.
Speaker 1: Coronagraphs. Those are the ones that block out the Sun's.
Speaker 2: Bright disc exactly. They create an artificial eclipse, blocking the
incredibly bright solar disk so that scientists can monitor the
much fainter structures around the Sun, like its outer atmosphere,
the corona, and importantly any CMEs erupting.
Speaker 1: I've seen those images the suns like a black circle
and you see these ghostly white plumes the corona stretching out.
Speaker 2: That's the view now some grazers, those comets that cut
extremely close to the Sun are pretty much guaranteed to
appear in the coronograph's field of view. But even objects
in this swarm that.
Speaker 1: Don't get that close, like free Idea.
Speaker 2: Three as or maybe Swan or K oneatil Us, when
they're near perihelium, they can be large enough and bright enough,
especially their comas, to appear in the outer field of
view of these coronagraphs, like the C three instrument ONESO.
Speaker 1: And what do scientists learn from seeing them in the coronographs.
Speaker 2: Well, first, it confirms their position and trajectory very precisely
near the Sun. But more than that, by analyzing how
the comets coma and tail scatter the Sun's light within
the coronograph's view, scientists can actually estimate the density and
the speed of the plasma and dust being released by
the comet. It gives us real numbers on how active
they are and didn't.
Speaker 1: The coronograph views also help confirm the physics of the
tail direction.
Speaker 2: We discussed they absolutely did. Back to comet Lovejoy in
twenty eleven, the one that survived its close pass, the
coronograph views very clearly showed its tail immediately reforming and
pointing directly away from the Sun as it flew back
out into space, a beautiful real time demonstration of radiative
pressure and solar wind.
Speaker 1: If so, these solar instruments really confirm that these objects
are acting as massive dynamic players interacting with the Sun's
own output.
Speaker 2: Without a doubt, this whole period of convergence from the
close approaches of Swan and Lemon to the immense plasma
bubble of the interstellar object three I E list makes
the rest of this year twenty twenty five, just a
phenomenal time for heliophysics research and dynamic observation.
Speaker 1: It really sounds like the next few months are setting
up a grand show, both visually for us on the
ground and dynamically for scientists studying the Sun hashtag outro.
Speaker 2: So when we pull all this together, synthesize all the data,
the situation unfolding right now is genuinely extraordinary. You've got
three IE lists, this interstellar heavyweight acting as a potentially
massive electromagnetic disruptor right near the Sun, interacting with the
Sun at the exact same time as the swarm of
six other highly volatile close flying commets. It's creating this enhanced,
unusually dense electromagnetic signature in the inner Solar System, the
likes of which really modern and observational astronomy hasn't had
the chance to chronicle before with this level of detail.
Speaker 1: It's fascinating too, how this modern scientific understanding, you know,
plasma physics, magnetic reconnection distances in AU, it connects right
back to thousands of years of human experience, doesn't it.
Speaker 2: It really does.
Speaker 1: For basically all of recorded history, comments weren't just observed
as astronomical objects. They were seen as signs, as omens,
as harbingers of change.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's the traditional view, isn't it. Especially for bright
comments that were visible for a long time in the
night sky. They're often thought to precede periods of well
intense societal transformation, maybe great battles, or what we might
now call paradigm shifts.
Speaker 1: And here we have this extraordinary physical dynamic happening in
the heavens right now, and well, it's hard not to
notice that the world itself is simultaneously experiencing a period
of intense global volatility, rapid technological change, societal shifts. The
physics is immediate and measurable, but that cultural and historical
resonance definitely lingers.
Speaker 2: It does make you wonder, doesn't it, what resonance, if any,
this massive injection of cosmic material and energy, might have,
even subtly on Earth's own energetic field, or perhaps even
our collective experience, Whether it's scientifically measurable down the line
or just historically perceived it certainly feels like a moment
of intense celestial activity coinciding with intense terrestrial activity.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, the immediate physical dynamics we've detailed for the rest
of twenty twenty five, you know, the potential for enhanced
solar flares, the bright visual displays like Comet Lemon, the
possibility of seeing tail disconnection events. Those are the headline
events for the coming.
Speaker 1: Months, the things to watch form exactly.
Speaker 2: But perhaps the longest lasting effect, the one that stretches
beyond this year, might be the one we can only
really speculate about right now. That debris trail left behind
by the interstellar heavyweight three I Atlas, the.
Speaker 1: Stuff Earth flies through in twenty twenty six precisely.
Speaker 2: So maybe consider this as you watch the skies over
the coming months. What does it truly mean for us
for Earth to be traversing material that originated near another star,
potentially thousands of light years away.
Speaker 1: Material that's traveled a void for maybe billions of.
Speaker 2: Years, billions of years, only now to be scattered into
our little corner of the solar neighborhood. What previously unknown elements,
what exotic molecules, or what new particles carrying information from
afar might we gain when we sweep through the remnants
of the universe's newest biggest visitor in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: That really is the ultimate deep dive question, isn't it.
Speaker 2: It is, and it's one worth keeping your eye on
long after the last of this comet swarm has flown
back out into the darkness.