British scientists will lead an audacious plan to ‘intercept’ a speeding comet in order to study the conditions of the early solar system.
The mission, which has literally been called the ‘Comet Interceptor’, is planned to launch it in 2028.
The European Space Agency (ESA) will quaterback the mission and will be launching a spacecraft to a position about a million miles away from Earth.
From there, they will wait for a suitably tasty looking comet to cross their path before making a grab for it.
‘The Comet Interceptor mission will involve a main spacecraft – a ‘mothership’ – that will make observations of the comet from a distance. It will deploy two smaller ‘daughter’ spacecraft which then move in closer to measure features such as the comet’s structure and surface material, as well as the cocktail of gases it is releasing, explained the UK Space Agency.
The agency says that the right target is either a ‘pristine’ comet travelling inwards from the far reaches of the solar system or an interstellar object similar to Oumuamua, which passed through last year.
The experts say that comets act as ‘time capsules’ that can give us information about the origins of the universe.
Although the project will be led by UK scientists, it will also involve experts from Nasa and Jaxa, the Japanese space agency.
The scheduled launch in 2028 will mean the mission shares a ride on a rocket with another UK-led mission – the ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey) space telescope, which aims to study the atmospheres of around 1,000 planets orbiting stars other than our own, known as exoplanets.
Chris Lee, the head of Science Programmes at the UK Space Agency said: ‘In 1986 the UK-led mission to Halley’s Comet became the first to observe a cometary nucleus and, more recently, UK scientists took part in another iconic European comet mission, Rosetta.
‘Now our scientists will build on that impressive legacy by attempting to visit a pristine comet for the very first time and learn more about the origins of our Solar System.’
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