Expect the Unexpected: Solar Orbiter to Pass Through the Tails of Comet ATLAS

Hubble Observation of ATLAS Comet on April 23, 2020

A view of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) obtained with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on April 23, 2020. Credit:
NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA), Q. Ye (University of Maryland)

ESA’s Solar Orbiter will cross through the tails of Comet ATLAS during the next few days. Although the recently launched spacecraft was not due to be taking science data at this time, mission experts have worked to ensure that the four most relevant instruments will be switched on during the unique encounter.

Solar Orbiter was launched on February 10, 2020. Since then, and with the exception of a brief shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, scientists and engineers have been conducting a series of tests and set-up routines known as commissioning.

ESA Solar Orbiter

ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission will face the Sun from within the orbit of Mercury at its closest approach. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

The completion date for this phase was set at June 15, so that the spacecraft could be fully functional for its first close pass of the Sun, or perihelion, in mid-June. However, the discovery of the chance encounter with the comet made things more urgent.

Serendipitously flying through a comet’s tail is a rare event for a space mission, something scientists know to have happened only six times before for missions that were not specifically chasing comets. All such encounters have been discovered in the spacecraft data after the event. Solar Orbiter’s upcoming crossing is the first to be predicted in advance.

It was noticed by Geraint Jones of the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UK, who has a 20-year history of investigating such encounters. He discovered the first accidental tail crossing in 2000, while investigating a strange disturbance in data recorded by the ESA/NASA Ulysses Sun-studying spacecraft in 1996. This study revealed that the spacecraft had passed through the tail of Comet Hyakutake, also known as ‘The Great Comet of 1996’. Soon after the announcement, Ulysses crossed the tail of another comet, and then a third one in 2007.

Earlier this month, realizing that Solar Orbiter was going to be 44 million kilometers downstream of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) in just a matter of weeks, Geraint immediately alerted the ESA team.

Bonus science

Solar Orbiter is equipped with a suite of 10 in-situ and remote-sensing instruments to investigate the Sun and the flow of charged particles it releases into space – the solar wind. Fortuitously, the four in-situ instruments are also perfect for detecting the comet’s tails because they measure the conditions around the spacecraft, and so they could return data about the dust grains and the electrically charged particles given off by the comet. These emissions create the comet’s two tails: the dust tail that is left behind in the comet’s orbit and the ion tail that points straight away from the Sun.

Solar Orbiter Instruments Graphic

Solar Orbiter’s suite of ten science instruments that will study the Sun. There are two types: in situ and remote sensing. The in situ instruments measure the conditions around the spacecraft itself. The remote-sensing instruments measure what is happening at large distances away. Together, both sets of data can be used to piece together a more complete picture of what is happening in the Sun’s corona and the solar wind. Credit: ESA-S.Poletti

Solar Orbiter will cross the ion tail of Comet ATLAS on 31 May–1 June, and the dust tail on June 6. If the ion tail is dense enough, Solar Orbiter’s magnetometer (MAG) might detect the variation of the interplanetary magnetic field because of its interaction with ions in the comet’s tail, while the Solar Wind Analyser (SWA) could directly capture some of the tail particles.

Anatomy of a Comet Infographic

The main components of a comet – nucleus, coma, hydrogen envelope, dust and plasma tails – indicating their composition, relative sizes and location. Credit: ESA

When Solar Orbiter crosses the dust tail, depending on its density – which is extremely difficult to predict – it is possible that one or more tiny dust grains may hit the spacecraft at speeds of tens of kilometers per second. While there is no significant risk to the spacecraft from this, the dust grains themselves will be vaporized on impact, forming tiny clouds of electrically charged gas, or plasma, which could be detected by the Radio and Plasma Waves (RPW) instrument.

“An unexpected encounter like this provides a mission with unique opportunities and challenges, but that’s good! Chances like this are all part of the adventure of science,” says Günther Hasinger, ESA Director of Science.

One of those challenges was that the instruments seemed unlikely to all be ready in time because of the commissioning. Now, thanks to a special effort by the instrument teams and ESA’s mission operations team, all four in-situ instruments will be on and collecting data, even though at certain times the instruments will need to be switched back into commissioning mode to ensure that the June 15 deadline is met.

“With these caveats, we are ready for whatever Comet ATLAS has to tell us,” says Daniel Müller, ESA Project Scientist for Solar Orbiter.

Expect the unexpected

Another challenge entails the comet’s behavior. Comet ATLAS was discovered on December 28, 2019. During the next few months, it brightened so much that astronomers wondered whether it would become visible to the naked eye in May.

Comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS Disintegrates

Hubble captures breakup of Comet ATLAS in April 2020. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI and D. Jewitt (UCLA)

Unfortunately, in early April the comet fragmented. As a result, its brightness dropped significantly too, robbing sky watchers of the view. A further fragmentation in mid-May has diminished the comet even more, making it less likely to be detectable by Solar Orbiter.

Although the chances of detection have reduced, the effort is still worth making according to Geraint.

“With each encounter with a comet, we learn more about these intriguing objects. If Solar Orbiter detects Comet ATLAS’s presence, then we’ll learn more about how comets interact with the solar wind, and we can check, for example, whether our expectations of dust tail behavior agree with our models,” he explains. “All missions that encounter comets provide pieces of the jigsaw puzzle.”

Geraint is the principal investigator of ESA’s future Comet Interceptor mission, which consists of three spacecraft and is scheduled for launch in 2028. It will make a much closer flyby of an as yet unknown comet that will be selected from the newly discovered comets nearer the time of launch (or even after that).

Grazing the Sun

Solar Orbiter is currently circling our parent star between the orbits of Venus and Mercury, with its first perihelion to take place on June 15, around 77 million kilometers (48 million miles) from the Sun. In coming years, it will get much closer, within the orbit of Mercury, around 42 million kilometers (26 million miles) from the solar surface. Meanwhile, Comet ATLAS is already there, approaching its own perihelion, which is expected on May 31, around 37 million kilometers (23 million miles) from the Sun.

Solar Orbiter: Journey Around the Sun

Solar Orbiter: Journey Around the Sun. Credit: ESA-S.Poletti

“This tail crossing is also exciting because it will happen for the first time at such close distances from the Sun, with the comet nucleus being inside the orbit of Mercury,” says Yannis Zouganelis, ESA Deputy Project Scientist for Solar Orbiter.

Understanding the dust environment in the innermost region of the Solar System is one of Solar Orbiter’s scientific objectives.

“Near-Sun comets like Comet ATLAS are sources of dust in the inner heliosphere and so this study will not only help us understand the comet, but also the dust environment of our star,” adds Yannis.

Looking at an icy object rather than the scorching Sun is certainly an exciting – and unexpected – way for Solar Orbiter to start its scientific mission, but that’s the nature of science.

“Scientific discovery is built on good planning and serendipity. In the three months since launch, the Solar Orbiter team has already proved that it’s ready for both,” says Daniel.

Reference: “Prospects for the In Situ detection of Comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS by Solar Orbiter” by Geraint H. Jones, Qasim Afghan and Oliver Price, 5 May 2020, Research Notes of the AAS.
DOI: 10.3847/2515-5172/ab8fa6

Solar Orbiter is an ESA-led mission with strong NASA participation. It is the first ‘medium’-class mission implemented in the Cosmic Vision 2015-25 program, the current planning cycle for ESA’s space science missions.

2 Comments on "Expect the Unexpected: Solar Orbiter to Pass Through the Tails of Comet ATLAS"

  1. Picture a stream of fast moving dark energy headed for the sun. When the velocity of the stream and the gravity reach a zero G equivalent (think vomit comet) the dark matter flashes to dark energy creating nano flares. The flares and the expansion of the dark energy would create bubbles with the interface outlined in ionized plasma.

    The dark energy being out of the sweet spot absorbs heat and reverts to dark matter. This would cause coronal rain and in longer streams of dark energy would cool areas all the way to the surface of the sun before regaining sufficient heat to revert to dark matter.

  2. kamir bouchareb st | November 16, 2020 at 12:18 am | Reply

    nice topic

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