All_About_Space_-_Issue_94_2020

dandwonderfulangles.We

hishypotheticalareathat

wayoutontheedgeofthe

uto.Andtheseareprobably

e materialthatwecanget

wasthere4.5billionyears

emformed.”

studylong-periodcomets

butwe’veneverseenoneup

t ofunansweredquestions,

e mostlybinaryobjects

ogether,likeComet67P–

urfaceslooklike.Surveys

Tareexpectedtofind

f cometseveryyear,and

sewillbehopedtobelong-

tsthatCometInterceptor

notherincrediblyalluring

missionthatwehaven’t

e whilea long-period

, theteamwillalsobe

lityofsomethingfarmore

ifitmightbepossibleto

ourSolarSystem,butfrom

CometInterceptor’sother

ong-periodcomet,butan

far.

r a comet,becausethat’s

odgrassexplains.“The

ssibility,butthechances

ttyslim.Withthecomet

infromallsortsofweird

thinktheycomefromth

we calltheOortCloud,w

SolarSystembeyondPlu

amongthemostpristine

ourhandson,stuffthatw

agowhentheSolarSyste

Wehavebeenable to

beforewithtelescopes,b

close.Andtherearea lot

suchaswhethertheyar

• twocometsstuckto
  andwhattheirsu
  liketheLSST
  thousandso
  someofthes
  periodcome
  couldvisit.
  Butthereisa
  possibilitywiththis
  mentionedyet.Because
  cometisthemaintarget
  investigatingthepossibi
  ambitious.Theywillsee
  visitanobjectnotfromo
  anothersystementirely.
  potentialtargetisnotal
  interstellarobjectfroma
  “Alltheplanningisfor
  the mostlikelycase,”Sno
  interstellarobjectisapo
  ofusgettingonearepre

Comet mmissioons

compareed

How Comet Interceptor

stacks up to similiar

missions before it

©LSST

Project

Office

Right:
TheLSSTwill
hopefully
findplentyof
targetswhen
itswitcheson
nextyear

*Proposedlaunchdate

Flyby

mission

yy

European

mission

p

ted

et

21st-

century

mission

y

DeepImpa

(2005)

Comet

Interceptor

(2028*)

Lan

on/

impacte

aco

Rosetta

(2 00 4)

act

© NASA/JPL-Caltech

Comet Interceptor