ESA’s Solar Orbiter to pass through tails of comet ATLAS

The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter, launched in February 2020, unexpectedly encountered Comet Atlas. Discovered in December 2019, Atlas brightened rapidly but broke apart as it neared the Sun. Despite this, the Solar Orbiter adjusted its schedule to study the comet's tails using its instruments. Comets consist of dust, frozen water, and gases, with tails formed by solar radiation and wind. The Orbiter aimed to analyze these tails, providing valuable data on cometary composition and solar interactions.

What materials are comets primarily made of?

How does the Solar Orbiter plan to analyze particles from the comet's dust tail?