What's unusual about Comet Interceptor is that the mission won't know its target until the very last moment. Therefore after
The main task of the mission is a thorough studya comet that has spent little time inside the solar system or was in it for the first time. The researchers plan to pick up a target for observation from the Oort Cloud, and, with any luck, an interstellar object like 'Oumuamua discovered in 2017.
The space agency notes that, thanks toWith recent advances in ground-based telescopes, new comets are now routinely detected more than a year before their closest approach to the Sun. This is too little to launch a mission from Earth, but the "interceptor" that is waiting in orbit will have time to get to the comet.
According to the ESA, the Comet Interceptor mission willconsist of a main spacecraft and two probes that will surround the comet and observe it from different angles. This observation technology will create a three-dimensional profile of the future target. The main ship and one of the probes are being built by ESA, while the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will be responsible for the second probe.
The mission is expected to launch withESA exoplanet mission Ariel in 2029. Both ships will go to the Lagrange point L2, located at a distance of about 1.5 million km from our planet. In this area, where the gravitational influence of the Earth and the Sun is balanced, the Comet Interceptor will wait until a suitable target is found for it.
After that, the ship will go towards the found object in order to study the shape and structure of the untouched comet, the composition of its surface, gas and dust coma.
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