It crosses space as a fleeting ghost that leaves a colorful bright tail. In his path, an attentive observer registered it, leaving us the beautiful images we share here. The ESA/NASA orbiter solar probe captured the incredible view of a kite. Recently processed data show the comet C/2024 G3 (Atlas) in all its splendor while passing near the sun.
The instrument that did is the solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imress (Solohi). It was developed by the US Naval Research Laboratory (USNRL). And could capture this image in two of its four “mosaics” or graphic windows.
Comet queues
The meeting occurred between January 14 and 25. It happened while Solar Orbiter was heading towards Venus and Comet C/2024 G3 (Atlas) coincided with the Sun. This is reported by NASA in one of its accounts in X.
Other spacecraft that observe the sun also saw the kite. However, the high resolution view of this orbiter causes the stripes, or stretch marks, in the queue of the comet to stand out even more. That is why this image particularly caught the attention of scientists. The comets have two tails. The first is a dust tail, which is formed when ice and dust evaporate. The second is an ion tail, a current of electrically charged gases.
Electric charge
Sometimes it is easy to distinguish the two tails from a kite. Other times, as in the case of the markedly striated tail of this private kite, it is not, according to NASA.
The incredible view of a kite gives us relevant information. When studying McNaught comet in 2007, scientists discovered that stretch marks can be a strange combination of the two queues. There are the pieces of dust that behave as if they were electrically charged, aligning with the magnetic fields of the Sun. The strongly striated queue of the comet analyzed can now give more clues to the matter.
