The European Space Agency's Comet Interceptor lies in wait

Colin Snodgrass; Geraint H Jones

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-13470-1

The European Space Agency's Comet Interceptor lies in wait

Nat Commun. 2019 Nov 28;10(1):5418. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13470-1.

Authors

Colin Snodgrass¹, Geraint H Jones²

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK. csn@roe.ac.uk.
² Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey, RH5 6NT, UK. g.h.jones@ucl.ac.uk.

Abstract

The European Space Agency (ESA) recently selected Comet Interceptor as its first ‘fast’ (F-class) mission. It will be developed rapidly to share a launch with another mission and is unique, as it will wait in space for a yet-to-be-discovered comet.