NASA sun observatory spies Comet Atlas in the solar wind, and Mercury too!

You’ll need a minute to take it all in, there’s a lot going on in this stunning view of the inner solar system, including a comet, Mercury and some solar weather. This view was captured by NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory A, or STEREO-A. The spacecraft launched in 2006 with its now-silent twin to study the sun, in particular from angles we can’t see from Earth.

The pale haze gusting in from the left of the image is the solar wind, the charged particles that constantly stream out of the sun and across the solar system, creating the bubble Earth and its neighbours move through. And of course there are countless stars, some that appear to be standing on bright stalks (the streaks are just flukes in the image). Near the end of the loop, Mercury crosses into view from the left side of the image, moving across the background of stars, according to a NASA statement.

And STEREO-A’s location was a perfect vantage point to catch sight of a comet that threw sky watchers into a frenzy this year, dubbed Comet ATLAS. Astronomers first spotted the object at the end of December 2019, and soon identified it as a comet new to Earth’s neighbourhood. This animation compiles images taken between May 25 and June 1 2020.