A set of sequential images taken by Solar Orbiter shows Comet Leonard and its two glowing tails. Photo: ESA/Solar Orbiter/Team Metis
PARIS, kilat.com – Moment Comet Leonard left Earth and flew past Venus, a spacecraft that studied the Sun flying through the comet’s long tail. His actions gave humans a new perspective on the ice traveler (comet).
Discovered last January and also known as Comet C/2021 A1, Comet Leonard is probably the most spectacular visitor to skywatchers in 2021. It stands out quite a bit when zoomed in toward the Sun, especially in the days leading up to its closest approach to Earth at 12 December.
And coincidentally, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Solar Orbiter mission flew through the comet’s tail as the spacecraft continued its journey to study the Sun. Yes this offers scientists a sizeable bonus.
“The big advantage is that there’s basically no effort on the part of the spacecraft, you can sample comets at great distances,” said Samuel Grant, a graduate student at University College London. “That’s quite interesting.”
The spacecraft collected comet data over several days, December 13, 2021. At that time, Comet Leonard was moving away from Earth toward the Sun, which was closest to it on January 3.
Meanwhile, the Solar Orbiter has completed its flyby of Earth on November 27 and is also heading towards the Sun, which it will pass by in March. Although the comet’s core was near Venus and about 44.5 million kilometers from the spacecraft in mid-December, the comet’s tail stretched past Earth’s orbit, according to the ESA.
Grant realized beforehand that the Solar Orbiter would fly through the comet’s tail thanks to a computer program that combined the spacecraft’s trajectory, the comet’s orbit, and the solar wind.
This program, write Space.com, developed by the scientists behind ESA’s Comet Interceptor mission, which will launch in 2029 and execute a long-period comet flyby. Although the Solar Orbiter was designed to study the Sun rather than comets, the spacecraft carried several instruments capable of gathering data about Comet Leonard’s tail during its crossing.
For example, the spacecraft’s Solar Wind Analyzer instrument suite detects ions and compounds present in comets from the solar wind, including oxygen and carbon dioxide ions. In addition, the probe’s magnetometer detects signs of magnetic disturbances that may be caused by the comet’s interaction with the Sun’s magnetic field.
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