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The Comet Interceptor probe could visit a stunning object like the green C/2022 E3 (ZTF) - Space.com

The Comet Interceptor probe could visit a stunning object like the green C/2022 E3 (ZTF) - Space.com

The Comet Interceptor probe could visit a stunning object like the green C/2022 E3 (ZTF) - Space.com
Jan 30, 2023 53 secs

Whatever comet ends up striking lucky will be subject to a thorough, albeit brief, inspection by the main spacecraft and two smaller probes.

After launch, Comet Interceptor will head out to Earth-sun Lagrange point 2 (L2), the same deep-space "parking spot" that the James Webb Space Telescope orbits.

At Lagrange points, gravitational tugs balance out, so it will be relatively cheap to keep the spacecraft at its station while waiting for scientists to identify a promising target.

They'd find that, if the spacecraft had headed out in late August, it could fly past the comet on Feb. 12, just a month after the snowball's closest approach to the sun and a little less than a year after the object's discovery.

That's thanks to the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile, which will conduct a 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) beginning in early 2025.

"The discovery is a little bit on the late side, but we are not worried about that because we expect those comets to be discovered significantly earlier with LSST," Kueppers said of the virtual C/2022 E3 scenario.

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