NASA’s Parker Solar Probe had a surprise close encounter with a comet
By
![NASA's Parker Solar Probe had a surprise close encounter with a comet](https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/17160014/17-dec_close-encounter-comet-1.jpg?width=300)
Parker Space Probe/NASA
A spacecraft on a mission to the sun had a surprise encounter with a comet last year – and discovered evidence that it may not be a comet after all.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP) was and is currently still in a close orbit, travelling in a region of the solar system often visited by comets.
Jiansen He at Peking University in Beijing, China, and his colleagues checked the orbital trajectory of the spacecraft against a database of comets, looking for potential encounters. …