Comet 96P spotted again by NASA, ESA satellite

Scientists at NASA and European Space Agency have spotted the return of Comet 96P using the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) – making it the spacecraft’s most frequent cometary visitor.
The comet entered the lower right corner of SOHO’s view on October 25, and skirted up and around the right edge before leaving on October 30. SOHO had also spotted comet 96P in 1996, 2002, 2007 and 2012.

At the same time, comet 96P passed through a second NASA mission’s view: STEREO – short for Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory – also watched the comet between October 26-28, from the opposite side of Earth’s orbit. It is extremely rare for comets to be seen simultaneously from two different locations in space, and these are the most comprehensive parallel observations of comet 96P yet.
These combined observations will help learn more about the comet’s composition, as well as its interaction with the solar wind, the constant flow of charged particles from the Sun.

Both missions gathered polarisation measurements of the comet; these are measurements of sunlight in which all the light waves become oriented the same way after passing through a medium – in this case, particles in the tail of the comet. By pooling …read more