What It Looks Like When A Spacecraft Flies Through A Comet Tail

A European spacecraft zoomed through a comet tail last month and got incredible data showing the environment in this complex small body.

Comet Leonard, also known as Comet C/2021 A1, is slowly fading from our skies after making a one-way trip around the sun. It is on its way to interstellar space. Since all comets provide glimpses of what our solar system used to look like before planets and moons took up most of the small worlds, astronomers are always interested in catching a glimpse of these fleeting visitors.

“For a spacecraft designed to conduct unique studies of the sun, Solar Orbiter is also making a name for itself exploring comets,” the European Space Agency joked of the observation, which is the second time Solar Orbiter examined a comet.

More seriously, though, it’s not too much of a surprise since the sun’s gravity attracts comets as they zoom through the inner solar system.

Comet Leonard, also known as Comet C/2021 A1, captured streaking across Turkey's Van on December 11, ... [+] 2021.

Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

“The encounter,” ESA added, “captured information about the particles and magnetic field present in the tail of the comet. This will allow astronomers to study the way the comet interacts with the solar wind, a variable wind of particles and magnetic field that emanate from the Sun and sweep through the solar system.”

Besides science data, images were also captured using Metis, the spacecraft’s multi-wavelength coronagraph. On Dec. 15 and Dec. 16, 2021, it was able to see the more distant head of the comet in visible light and in ultraviolet light. Analysis of these images are ongoing, but researchers predict those will give hints of comet activity.

“The visible light images can hint at the rate at which the comet is ejecting dust, while the ultraviolet images can give the water production rate,” said lain Corso, a Metis co-investigator at the CNR-Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie in Italy.

ESA added that being able to cross into the comet of a tail is “relatively rare”, and said that of those we know of most of them only were detected after the fact.

“The ESA/NASA Ulysses mission encountered three comet ion tails, including that of C/1996 B2 Hyakutake in May 1996, and C/2006 P1 McNaught in early 2007,” ESA stated. “Solar Orbiter itself crossed the tail of fragmenting comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS in May and June 2020, shortly after launching.”

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