The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to launch a unique comet chase in 2029.
The mission, called Comet Interceptor, was approved on Wednesday (June 8) at the meeting of ESA’s Science Program Committee. It will be a collaboration between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
The mission will consist of three probes — the main spacecraft and two smaller satellites — which, along with the European exoplanet Hunter Ariel†
The unusual thing about Comet Interceptor is that it doesn’t know its target before launching. The probe will travel to the Lagrange point 2 (L2), a gravitationally stable point 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Soil in the direction away from the Sun†
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L2 is one of five points between the Earth and the Sun where the gravitational pull of the two bodies creates balanced conditions. A spacecraft in this region orbits the sun in sync with the Earth, thereby protecting it from the sun’s glare, making this region a sought-after destination for astronomical missions. (NASAs James Webb Space Telescope is one of the residents of L2.)
For Comet Interceptor, L2 will only be a temporary destination. The spacecraft will wait there for a unique target to arrive in the interior solar systemeither a comet from the edge of the solar system, or an object from even further away, from interstellar space, such as the famous ‘Oumuamua’which was 15 million miles (24 million km) from Earth in 2017.
ESA made headlines in 2014 with its rosetta missionwho placed the Philae Lander on the surface of Comet 67P† In 1986, ESA’s Giotto probe made the first-ever accurate observations of a comet as it passed the famous Haley’s comet† However, these comets are so-called short-period comets that regularly visit the inner solar system and have flown close to the sun many times. Each encounter with the sun changes the comet’s chemistry, ESA said in a statement yesterday, making it less and less representative of the young solar system’s chemical state.
“A comet in its first orbit around the sun would contain unprocessed material from the beginning of the solar system,” said Michael Küppers, a Comet Interceptor researcher at ESA. in the statement (opens in new tab)† “By studying such an object and sampling this material, we can understand not only more about comets, but also how the solar system formed and evolved over time.”
ESA expects Comet Interceptor to not have to wait too long for an exciting target to appear, as new comets are currently being discovered at least one a year. Such a time frame would be too short to build and launch a dedicated spacecraft. However, Comet Interceptor will be able to meet the visitor soon.
Once Comet Interceptor reaches its target, the three spacecraft will separate the body from multiple angles and image them in synchronization to create a three-dimensional profile, ESA said in the statement.
ESA will build the main spacecraft and one of the auxiliary probes, while JAXA, which has landed spacecraft on two separate asteroids with the Hayabusa 1 and Hayabusa 2 missions, will be responsible for the second smaller satellite.
Each of the probes will be equipped with different instruments to analyze the comet’s surface composition, shape and structure, as well as the dust and gas of its coma, the tail-like cloud emanating from the surface.
The three satellites together will weigh less than 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms), ESA said.
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