Episode 537: Catching The Next Interstellar Asteroid Or Comet. ESA's Comet Interceptor Mission

On October 19th, 2017 astronomers detected the first interstellar asteroid (or maybe comet) passing through the Solar System: Oumuamua. It had a brief encounter with the inner Solar System and then hurtled back out into interstellar space.

Once astronomers noticed it, they directed the world’s telescopes on the object, but it was too far away to reveal anything more than a faint dot.

Until now, we’ve only been able to study objects in our own Solar System. We have no idea what the rest of the Milky Way is like.

But we were too late to catch it, no spacecraft was ready to make a quick intercept.

Well, scientists aren’t going to make that mistake again. The European Space Agency announced their plans to build a comet interceptor. A spacecraft that will lurk out at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point, waiting for a long-period comet or interstellar object to pounce on, and give us the first close up view ever.

Audio Podcast version:

ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/universe-today-guide-to-space-audio/id794058155?mt=2

RSS: https://www.universetoday.com/audio

What Fraser's Watching Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbJ42wpShvmkjd428BcHcCEVWOjv7cJ1G

Weekly email newsletter:

https://www.universetoday.com/newsletter

Support us at: http://www.patreon.com/universetoday

More stories at: http://www.universetoday.com/

Twitch: https://twitch.tv/fcain

Follow us on Twitter: @universetoday

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universetoday

Instagram - http://instagram.com/universetoday

Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / [email protected]

Karla Thompson - @karlaii / https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEItkORQYd4Wf0TpgYI_1fw

Chad Weber - [email protected]

References:

http://www.cometinterceptor.space/

https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Giotto_overview

http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/2279-summary/

http://www.astro.uwo.ca/~wiegert/phd/Wiegert_phd.pdf

https://www.sciencealert.com/watch-the-sun-absolutely-destroy-the-fastest-comet-in-the-solar-system

http://sci.esa.int/cosmic-vision/61416-esa-s-new-mission-to-intercept-a-comet/

http://www.cometinterceptor.space/mission.html

http://www.cometinterceptor.space/uploads/1/2/3/7/123778284/comet_interceptor_executive_summary.pdf

https://i4is.org/what-we-do/technical/project-lyra/

Support Universe Today Podcast