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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. …