Comet 3I/ATLAS's tail to be traversed by a pair of probes.

A prime example of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS zooming through our system of planets (Image credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/K. Meech (IfA/U. Hawaii)Image Processing: Jen Miller & Mahdi Zamani (NSF NOIRLab))

Diverse notions have been put forth pertaining to 3I/ATLAS, the third recognized object from interstellar space that we’ve come across. Certain ones are simply unfounded conjectures about it being an extraterrestrial vehicle, while other concepts are well-researched proposals, such as deploying probes from Mars to watch the comet surge past the red planet.

A recent document, issued beforehand on arXiv and okayed for release by the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society through Samuel Grand and Geraint Jones, who work at the Finnish Meteorological Institute and ESA, respectively, belongs to the latter sort, and advises that two spacecraft, already moving towards their separate locations, could perhaps identify ions from the striking tail the object displays as it draws nearer to the Sun.

The pair of spacecraft under consideration are Hera and Europa Clipper – each is on its way toward missions in markedly unique regions of the solar system. Hera will journey to Didymos-Dimorphos, the twin asteroid which was struck by the DART undertaking in 2022. Europa Clipper, as the designation implies, will head to Europa, one of Jupiter’s quartet of Galilean moons, with plans to explore its ice.

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A handful of weeks is hardly any time to arrange a fast-track experiment to carry out a test that wasn’t included in the initial blueprints for either spacecraft. All the same, sometimes scientific exploration requires utilizing the resources available, and currently, these two probes offer the greatest promise for investigating the trail left behind by an interstellar comet.

That tail has grown steadily ever since the comet’s finding at the start of June. The newest information about its “gushing” discharge of water illustrates the size of the trail, creating a stream of water particles, with possibly more significantly, ions, trailing after it. Furthermore, the comet slipped out of view from Earth’s telescopes recently, even if its tail will presumably continue to expand until it arrives at perihelion on October 29th.

As laid out in the document, ending up within a portion of the tail is not as straightforward as traveling directly in its wake while it advances through the solar system. The solar wind propels the particles away from the Sun, and they follow a curving path away from the comet. The rate at which the wind influences these particles heavily influences their placement, and in turn the exact location the spacecraft would have to traverse to obtain direct readings from the tail.

In order to generate these estimations, the researchers utilized a model titled “Tailcatcher”, which approximates the course of the cometary ions utilizing differing wind speeds. It then computed the “minimum miss distance” for each spacecraft relative to the comet tail’s central line. Unfortunately, the model’s degree of precision is relative to the solar wind information, which is usually gathered definitively after the event – and certainly in a timeframe that won’t assist with this potentially opportunistic objective.

Even applying the most reliable approximations from the model, the spacecraft would be positioned millions of kilometers distant from the central line – about 8.2 million for Hera and 8 million for Europa Clipper. Yet, that is still within the boundary where collection of data regarding the tail’s ions remains plausible, seeing that they may span millions of kilometers in the case of very active comets similar to 3I/ATLAS.

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The draw back for this course of action lies in the fact that at least one of the probes – Hera – is not equipped with any tools that might detect either the anticipated ions within the tail, or the “draping framework” in magnetism that describes the effect the comet’s atmosphere produces on the magnetic domain conveyed by the solar wind. However, Europa Clipper can – its instrument for plasma analysis and magnetometer offer what’s required to explicitly perceive these ions and variations within the magnetic field.

Seizing this chance occurrence is a challenge, to put it mildly – and also time sensitive. It’s unclear whether the operations personnel overseeing Hera, or more pertinently, Europa Clipper, will see the message in enough time to have an impact on the course through the coma. Yet, in the event that they respond, they could represent the first instance in documented history where someone has acquired a sample straight from an interstellar comet’s tail – an achievement unrelated to the central mission that they could certainly boast about.

The original version of this article was published on Universe Today.

Andy Tomaswick

Andy’s passion for space exploration started in middle school, while reading Pale Blue Dot. As a trained engineer, his focal point is often the practical complexities linked to space exploration, ranging from the elimination of perchlorates on Mars to designing smooth-surfaced mirrors for acquiring greater data. Whenever he isn’t busy creating or drafting materials, he can be found spending time with his spouse, four children, six cats, and two dogs, or partaking in exercise to stay fit.

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