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I think this is second or third such video of a heavenly body colliding with the sun that I have seen. I am a bit curious why the impact from one side of the su

I think this is second or third such video of a heavenly body colliding with the sun that I have seen. I am a bit curious why the impact from one side of the sun (which is diametrically huge in comparison to the incoming projectile) pushed out a large flare or material on the other side of it? Is sun just a ball of liquid+gases+plasma or there is a hard solid core in the middle of it? For if there was a solid core at all, or even a molten inelastic core, then perhaps the emission on the far side wouldn't have been this big. To me, the the ejecta on the other side is almost equal to the splash on the side the comet hit. Any explanations?

carbocation 13y ago
Yes, the article states that (a) it's unlikely that the comet actually hit the sun (it probably burned up beforehand); and (b) there was a mass ejection event on the other side of the sun coincidentally around the same time that this comet was destroyed.
- monsterix 13y ago
  From the video the comet seems to be headed straight towards the center of sun, and yes the ejection event seems to be strongly related to the event of impact.
  - carbocation 13y ago
    Here's an animated gif (comet is at the bottom right within one of the brighter mass ejection beams, I missed it the first time around): http://spaceweather.com/images2013/24aug13/deadcomet_anim.gif http://spaceweather.com/images2013/24aug13/deadcomet_anim.gi...
  - adestefan 13y ago
    The CME had nothing to do with the object.