7.12.04

Solar storms smack a comet

CNN.com

Astronomers have pieced together what appears to be the first direct evidence that solar storms can wreck havoc with comets, destroying the ion tails of icy wanderers in a collision of highly charged particles.

But the effect is not permanent and may serve as a marker for scientists trying to track solar storms known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) as they blow out into space.