ESA's Comet Interceptor will be 1st mission to visit 'pristine' object

Couple captures stellar engagement photos under comet NEOWISE

The stars seem to have aligned for one New York couple, as they were visited by the comet NEOWISE on their engagement night.

The European Space Agency said Tuesday that it will conduct its first mission to visit a "pristine" comet entering the inner solar system for the first time.

The mission, called the Comet Interceptor, aims to understand what a comet looks like up close, what the early solar system was like, and whether we should be worried about a comet striking Earth.

According to the ESA, comets are difficult to get close to because they can only be detected when they fly near the Sun, leaving little time to plan and launch a mission.

"That’s why Comet Interceptor will be parked in space, springing to life to intercept a comet when the time is right," the ESA wrote.

According to NASA, comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock, and dust that orbit the Sun. When frozen, they are the size of a small town.

Its three spacecraft will perform simultaneous observations from multiple points around the comet, creating a 3D profile of a "dynamically new" object that contains unprocessed material surviving from the dawn of the solar system.

The Comet NEOWISE or C/2020 F3, with its two tails visible, is seen in the sky above Goldfield, Nevada on July 18, 2020. (Credit: DAVID BECKER/AFP via Getty Images)

The ESA said the measurements that Comet Interceptor makes will teach the space agency about the target comet’s craters and depressions, how dusty or rocky its outer surface is and what compounds it carries.

The Comet Interceptor mission was selected by ESA in June 2019 as ESA's new fast-class mission in its Cosmic Vision Program.

Air and Space