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The Stardust space probe flew by the comet Wild 2 and collected particle samples from its coma, which were later returned to Earth.
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Stardust (spacecraft)
NASA sample-return mission to Comet 81P/Wild 2 (1999–2011)
Stardust was a 385-kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA on 7 February 1999. Its primary mission was to collect dust samples from the coma of comet Wild 2, as well as samples of cosmic dust, and return them to Earth for analysis. It was the first sample return mission of…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
81P/Wild
Periodic comet with six-year orbit
Comet 81P/Wild, also known as Wild 2, is a comet with a period of 6.4 years named after Swiss astronomer Paul Wild, who discovered it on January 6, 1978, using a 40-cm Schmidt telescope at Zimmerwald, Switzerland.Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Coma (comet)
Cloud of gas or a trail around a comet or asteroid
The coma is the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a comet, formed when the comet passes near the Sun in its highly elliptical orbit. As the comet warms, parts of it sublimate; this gives a comet a diffuse appearance when viewed through telescopes and distinguishes it from…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)