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Miracle on a Ball of Ice

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There is a standard type of story often seen in movies where a character is set up as a sure failure – the kind of engaging but doomed loser who faces insurmountable odds and will, under normal circumstances, succumb to a much stronger opponent.

And yet … for reasons that are inexplicable, our hero emerges victorious in spite of it all. We love these tales of amazing, unlikely underdogs.

Add to that list the tale of Comet Lovejoy, a recent discovery by an amateur astronomer in Australia – Terry Lovejoy. Already we are ahead of the game – our sky spotter has a perfectly charming and appropriately seasonal name. My guess is that a comet named after amateur astronomer Neil Grudge-Spite would not get the same kind of global press.

Lovejoy detected the comet in late November – early enough for scientists to train several space based detectors on the object, to track its certain demise as to streaks towards the sun. Here’s one description of the expected chain of events as posted on a Navy website dedicated to Sungrazing Comets just days after news of Lovejoy’s solar approach was announced:

“Welcome to the beginning of the end of Comet Lovejoy’s billions of years long journey through space. In less than 10 hours time, the comet will graze some 120,000km above the solar surface, through the several million degree solar corona, and — in my opinion — completely evaporate. We have here an exceptionally rare opportunity to observe the complete vaporization of a relatively large comet, and we have approximately 18 instruments on five different satellites that are trying to do just that. “

Here’s the amazing part – the comet skitters around the sun … and EMERGES! The comet watchers are dumbfounded. You can see video of the approach and escape here:

And here is the same skeptical Navy observer quoted earlier, delightedly eating crow:

“I don’t know where to begin. I simply don’t know. What an extraordinary 24hrs! I suppose the first thing to say is this: I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. And I have never been so happy to be wrong! For the past two weeks I have been saying that Comet Lovejoy would not survive perihelion in “any appreciable form”. When I said this, I envisioned that we would see some very diffuse component maybe last a few hours after perhelion, but not much else. I was spectacularly incorrect!
Last night, between 7pm and 8pm (ET), the SDO team blogged and tweeted live the passage of the comet through SDO’s extreme ultraviolet AIA camera. Not long after the first images were made available came the announcement that the comet was seen plunging into the solar atmosphere. I expected this, but was nonetheless delighted. What I did not expect was that a short time later it was seen to re-emerge!
Somehow it survived being immersed in the several million-degree solar corona for almost an hour …”

Lovejoy, our hero! And here’s the victory parade – a shot of the comet’s tail taken from the International Space Station by Commander Dan Burbank, who called it “… probably the most amazing thing I’ve seen in space ….” The glowing green tail of the comet Lovejoy, emerging just ahead of the sun from behind the Earth’s horizon.

Who’s your favorite underdog?

25 thoughts on “Miracle on a Ball of Ice”

  1. i follow the cubs and the fact that they find new ways to lose even with serious money behind them makes them the bad news bears of major league baseball. the only time they had a shot at it the fan on the 3rd base foul line interferes with the outfielder and costs them their chance at glory. how fitting for the americas team for losers. they are like the joe @%#^*#!! character from lil abner with the black cloud over their heads. if they ever change i think the appeal will be gone. to sit with the bleacher bums on a summer afternoon and watch the boys of summer fight on in vein has become a favorite pass time

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    1. I listened to some Cub games when I lived in Indiana. I hope to get see a Cubs game at the their famous old ball park sometime.

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  2. Good morning to all. I supose the Twins have to be considered as underdogs when they won their world championships. Both years they had good teams, but I don’t think anyone would have picked them to win the world series except perhaps some of their fans.

    I seem to be focused on sports when thinking of underdogs because this was one of my biggest interest when I was young. The Loyola basketball team that won the 1963 NCAA national championship really caught my attention. They didn’t have any big name players, but were a very scapy and spirited team. I can’t remember much else about them. I know they fought very hard in the championship game. I looked up that game and found out they won on a last second tip in at the end of over time.

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  3. Gotta be the 1980 US Olympic hockey team. To lose to the USSR 10-1 only days before the Winter Olympics, then come in and nearly run the table on the field (they tied Sweden, I believe, in the first game) was truly a “Miracle on Ice.”

    The victory was all the more sweet since the Russians, as well as most of the other teams, were comprised of virtual professionals, while the U.S. team was made up of college players. The cynics will insist they were ‘semi-pros’ considering that they recieved scholarships to play for their respective schools, but don’t forget that the Soviets also beat an all-star NHL team that winter (before the Olympics) and beat them soundly.

    For anyone interested who hasn’t seen in, the movie “Miracle” about that 1980 Olympic team, is in my opinion, the best sports movie ever made (even better than “The Natural”) and highly recommended. Another good hockey movie about underdogs is “Mystery, Alaska.

    And for all of you who ever played ‘pond hockey’ as a kid, I can’t recommend highly enough the documentary that came out a few years ago and was featured on PBS, called simply “Pond Hockey”. It might be available at your local library, and I did notice a few weeks ago that is was viewable on hulu.com.

    Chris in Owatonna
    (a former neighborhood rink rat who could barely skate his way out of a paper bag, but loves hockey to this day. Go Gophers!)

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    1. my other choice for sure chitrader.
      i was so lucky not to be made aware of hockey as a kid it would have messed me up. i have that hockey mentality and would have no teeth today if i had played. that game in the 1980 olympics was such a moment. i was 25 years old, had my favorite cousin out bar hopping and the game took over the crammed bars. we were in a row and would wander one to the next and each was more cranked up than the last as the game went on. one of those fun deals where you are making friends with others because of the common thread of the olympics. the russians were such arrogant jerks about their strength it was a pleasure to watch them sputter and choke as the whiz kids that herbie put together for the occasion. i remember goosebumps only a handful of times and it brings tears to my eyes when i recall these moments. the 80 olympics are one of those. magic stuff. the things money cant buy.

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  5. After Wellstone, my initial response is most any character played by Colin Firth – but that may just be my inner fan girl talking. Will have to ponder some more (maybe something will come to me during the din of the afternoon party Daughter has planned…six girls, 32+ Groovy Girls dolls, a new GG doll house, sugary treats – if you don’t hear from me for a few days, send in the rescue dogs).

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    1. Wally Cox is kind of an underdog winner, in a sense. One of the fun oddities of Hollywood, he and Marlon Brando were close friends fro years, starting in acting school.

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      1. i thought of wally and underdog which seemed to fit him so well. center qsquare in hollywood squares was the perfect place for his humor.
        theres no ned to fear underdog is here

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      2. I really like the image of Wally Cox and Marlon Brando in a buddy film. I hope somebody writes that screenplay someday. Based on their popular images, they would be a truly Odd Couple, no?

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  8. Based on personal experience and a previous blog entry, I’d have to offer the 1971 Macon Ironmen as my favorite underdogs. They were my high school baseball team, and will be the focus of a book coming out this spring, I believe.

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    1. looking forward to it. glad to hear you haven’t been sluffing off. the ironmen are a great story. i am looking forward to it. who is publishing your book?

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  9. OT – a snippet of W. H Auden:

    Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
    Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes —
    Some have got broken — and carrying them up to the attic.
    The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
    And the children got ready for school. There are enough
    Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week —
    Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
    Stayed up so late, attempted — quite unsuccessfully —
    To love all of our relatives, and in general
    Grossly overestimated our powers.

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