Cosmic time capsules: the search for pristine comets

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Hello, and welcome to the Physics World Stories

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podcast. I'm Andrew Blester.

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And in this episode, we're going to be

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exploring

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comet three I ATLAS.

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High above the orbital plane of our solar

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system, the comet is currently screaming past us

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at 58 kilometers per second.

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It started its journey, if the latest data

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is correct,

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thirteen billion years ago in the thick dust

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of the young Milky Way is a relic

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of the cosmic noon, a time capsule from

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an era before our sun even existed.

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It was first spotted in July 2025,

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and the internet did what it does best

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it speculated.

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With the velocity nearly double that of the

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first interstellar visitor we knew about Oumuamua

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and a trajectory that seemed to defy easy

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tracking from earth based telescopes

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the

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alien probe headlines

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practically wrote themselves.

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But as physicists,

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we know that the natural truth is far

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more profound than the science fiction. Today on

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the Physics World Stories podcast, we're looking at

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three I atmos through a more sensible

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scientific lens, and I would argue a more

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fascinating one. We're joined by doctor Tracy Becker,

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a lead on the team that has used

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the sensors of the Europa Clipper mission to

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observe the comet

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from a unique perspective.

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We're also talking to Michelle Quippus from the

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European Space Agency. Michelle is a key figure

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in the comet interceptor mission, a daring project

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designed to park a spacecraft

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deep in space

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and wait for a comet to arrive.

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We'll hear about that mission later in the

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podcast, but first to doctor Tracy Becker. I'm

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a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute,

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which is located in San Antonio, Texas.

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And, primarily, I study icy small bodies like,

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Europa, which is one of the moons of

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Jupiter,

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and,

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asteroids

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and,

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planetary rings. So rings around Saturn,

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Uranus, Neptune. So that's really awesome, and I

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feel like that's what we should be talking

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to you about. But we're actually talking to

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you about three I Atlas.

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How have you come into this story?

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So it's actually really

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exciting because when,

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we first heard about the interstellar object,

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it was

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back in July. It was, like, July 4

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weekend, just before that when it was first

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discovered. And I was in a meeting with

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the with some of the Europa Clipper team,

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and I said, wow. Wouldn't it be so

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cool if we could observe it?

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But that was like a throwaway sentence. I

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didn't know anything about the geometry of where

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the where the object was versus where Europa

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Clipper was or anything like that. And then

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and then it was the holiday, so everyone

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kinda forgot about it. But somehow over the

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weekend,

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that the lead of the mission, the project

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scientist, Bob Papalardo, reached out to the UVS

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team, which is the instrument that I work

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on, Europa UVS, and asked, you know, would

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we be able to observe it? And we

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were like, absolutely. They sent us,

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one of the other scientists on the team

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had put together a little

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diagram with the geometry of where is the

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spacecraft, where is the comet gonna be on

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closest approach, and,

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where is the sun and all of that

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geometry. And when we looked at it, we're

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like, this is

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an incredible opportunity to observe this object with

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our with our spacecraft. And so,

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we were excited and got busy right away

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because we only had a couple of weeks

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to plan the observations

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and get the commanding of the instrument onboard

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the spacecraft,

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in time for the observations that were gonna

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happen,

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in early November.

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So it it so it's Europa Clipper. Right?

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It's it's going tell us a bit about

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what it's going to do

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because I want to ask you next, how

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easy is it is to essentially

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turn it? I I do you have to

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turn it? How do you repurpose it all?

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That's a great question. So Europa Clipper was

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launched in October 2024, and it's on its

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way

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to, the Jupiter system to study Europa, which

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is this really interesting moon of Jupiter that

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is mostly an ice

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shell made out of water ice as we

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know it here on Earth, water ice. But

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underneath that icy shell is liquid

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is an ocean of liquid water, and there's

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more liquid water there than in all of

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Earth's oceans combined

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times two. And so if there's anywhere in

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the solar system to look for life, or

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the signs of the, habitability,

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that's the place to go and check. And

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so that mission is really designed with the

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goal of habitability in mind. It's it's meant

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to understand the conditions of

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of Europa, the the geology, the interior ocean.

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You know? Is the temperature? Is the salinity,

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sufficient to support life as we know it?

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We're not necessarily trying to say, yes. Life

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is there or not. But certainly understanding

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that first step of are the conditions there

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even favorable

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for the existence of life.

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That's insanely exciting.

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Yes. Very.

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I know. 2001.

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Right? And then 2010,

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those science fiction books. Hands off, Europa. That's

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ever since then,

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I've wanted to get my hands on Europa,

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and you're actually doing it. Yeah. That's insane.

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Oh, yeah. When somebody says, you know, don't

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go there. That's where we're gonna go.

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And we do have a we have a

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monolith at every one of our, team meetings

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to, you know, commemorate where we're going. What

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sorry. When's it getting there? When's it when's

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it gonna arrive? Yeah. So it's it's on

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a on a six year journey. And, actually,

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the spacecraft will be doing a flyby of

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the Earth and the moon to get a

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gravity assist later this year in 2026.

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And then, and then it will be

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a direct shot out to the Jupiter system

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and is planned to arrive in 2030.

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Okay.

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And then the data will get to you

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when?

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Well, we'll start collecting data as soon as

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we get there, and, it takes just the

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time

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of the speed of light. So depending on

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where Jupiter is compared to the distance of

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Earth anywhere between a half hour and two

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hours or something like that to get start

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getting some of those bits down. When you

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say the data, has it also got cameras

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on it? Oh, yeah. There's a full suite

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of instruments. This is a considered to be

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a NASA flagship mission, so it's kind of

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got all the things we could possibly fit

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on board and still launch the spacecraft. So

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it has

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a really powerful camera. We're gonna get images

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that are completely

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mind blowing compared to the images that we

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have from, for example, the Galileo spacecraft. We're

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gonna get some really, really beautiful

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shots. We have a magnetometer on board because

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that's one of the best ways to sense,

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the ocean underneath is to actually understand the

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magnetic field and how how Europa's

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induced magnetic field due to its ocean

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deflects the magnetic field of Jupiter. So that's

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actually one of the main ways we know

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about that ocean. So we have a magnetometer.

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We have a plasma instrument that also helps

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measure those kinda interactions with magnetic field.

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There's a radar, a ground penetrating radar to

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try to pierce through the ice and maybe

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hit where that, ocean deck starts

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and,

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an infrared spectrometer to understand the composition of

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Europa's ice. Because while it's mostly water ice,

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we see these really interesting discolorations

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that we think, are generally they kind of

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fall line along these lines of cracks and

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and breakups of the ice that we see.

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So that might indicate that that water is

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coming from underneath that ocean up to the

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surface and refreezing.

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And so if we can understand the composition

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of those discolorations,

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maybe we can say something about the materials

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that are in that ocean underneath.

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Let's see. I don't wanna miss any oh,

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and then and then the instrument that I

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work on, of course, is the UV instrument,

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ultraviolet studies of Europa that are mostly focused

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on the atmosphere, the very thin atmosphere of

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Europa. And then we have two in situ

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instruments. One,

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one is a dust collector, and one is

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a gas sniffer, a mass spectrometer. And so

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from those, we can actually

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collect the dust the dust and collect the

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gas and analyze them on board and send

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that data back down. And that's a way

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to basically taste and sniff the the composition

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of whatever material might be up in the

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atmosphere of Europa.

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Oh, amazing. Listen.

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Can we make a promise that if I'm

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still making this podcast

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in 2030,

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you talk to me again about it then?

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Absolutely.

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Awesome. Let's do that. But you what you

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have done is and you and your team

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have turned,

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Europa Clipper. Did you turn it? It's going

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to do that. But while we're there, on

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the way, let's look at this comet.

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Yeah. So,

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on this as a scientist on the scientist

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side, we just kind of say, hey. We

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wanna look at it. Right? And and then

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the engineers have to go and figure out

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how to do it.

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But, yeah, the spacecraft was not necessarily meant

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to be pointing that direction.

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So they do have to take into a

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lot of they have to take a lot

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of things into account when turning the spacecraft.

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Things like where are the solar panels going

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to be pointing because we have these huge

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solar panels on board, but you don't want

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to point them away from the sun all

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of a sudden and then lose power.

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And so it is it's a very big

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spacecraft, and it's slow. It takes a while

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to slew.

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But we're kinda just, you know, on this

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journey out to Jupiter, and there's not much

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else not too much else going on, I

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would say. And so,

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it was

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feasible in that sense. We were in the

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middle of doing a lot of our calibrations.

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And so one of the things that actually

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worked out was that in our for our

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instrument in particular,

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we weren't going to be able to understand

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how,

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an object other than a star

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kind of

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what that data would look like in our

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detector. And so a star is a point

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source. It's very kinda sharp, clean signal,

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but we have this very narrow slit. And

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00:09:31,115 --> 00:09:33,355
so Europa, when we get there, it's gonna

271
00:09:33,355 --> 00:09:35,674
be bigger than our slit size. And the

272
00:09:35,674 --> 00:09:38,495
effects of that on the detector are appreciable.

273
00:09:38,794 --> 00:09:40,475
And so we wouldn't be able to understand

274
00:09:40,475 --> 00:09:42,634
those until we already were at Europa already

275
00:09:42,634 --> 00:09:43,379
taking data.

276
00:09:43,940 --> 00:09:46,259
And so this actually presented an opportunity for

277
00:09:46,259 --> 00:09:48,039
what we call a calibration where we could

278
00:09:48,179 --> 00:09:49,940
look at an object that had an angular

279
00:09:49,940 --> 00:09:50,440
size,

280
00:09:50,980 --> 00:09:52,660
that would fill the slit and,

281
00:09:53,860 --> 00:09:55,299
use that as a way to start to

282
00:09:55,299 --> 00:09:56,740
already get a sense of how does our

283
00:09:56,740 --> 00:09:58,475
detector work when we're looking at a a

284
00:09:58,475 --> 00:10:00,634
big object other than a star. And so

285
00:10:00,634 --> 00:10:03,034
that kinda worked together. So we actually were

286
00:10:03,034 --> 00:10:04,955
able to move around some of our other

287
00:10:04,955 --> 00:10:05,695
planned calibrations

288
00:10:06,154 --> 00:10:08,554
and replace it with this with this special

289
00:10:08,554 --> 00:10:11,274
observation and still use it for calibration, but

290
00:10:11,274 --> 00:10:12,750
also get really, really cool science.

291
00:10:13,789 --> 00:10:16,029
Okay. So what have you seen by looking

292
00:10:16,029 --> 00:10:16,850
at it then?

293
00:10:17,470 --> 00:10:19,789
That's a good question, and we're still figuring

294
00:10:19,789 --> 00:10:23,090
it out. So we we the UV instrument,

295
00:10:23,230 --> 00:10:25,149
it's interesting, right, because it's designed to look

296
00:10:25,149 --> 00:10:27,794
at Europa, but mostly Europa's atmosphere. And so

297
00:10:27,875 --> 00:10:29,154
one of the things that it's meant to

298
00:10:29,154 --> 00:10:30,615
do is understand how,

299
00:10:31,475 --> 00:10:31,975
molecules

300
00:10:32,434 --> 00:10:34,914
in in the gas form kind of break

301
00:10:34,914 --> 00:10:36,855
up, and they they send out a signal.

302
00:10:37,394 --> 00:10:39,154
When when you have a breakdown of any

303
00:10:39,154 --> 00:10:40,615
kind of compound

304
00:10:40,995 --> 00:10:41,815
or or,

305
00:10:42,639 --> 00:10:43,940
yeah, elemental material,

306
00:10:44,399 --> 00:10:47,279
it releases light at a certain wavelength. And

307
00:10:47,279 --> 00:10:48,980
so, for example, if you have

308
00:10:49,360 --> 00:10:51,519
o two, two oxygen molecules, and they break

309
00:10:51,519 --> 00:10:53,199
up, they're gonna send out a signal at

310
00:10:53,199 --> 00:10:55,440
a very, very specific wavelength, and that is

311
00:10:55,440 --> 00:10:57,495
a very strong signal at at UV wavelengths.

312
00:10:57,495 --> 00:10:59,735
Lengths. And so that's what we're planning to

313
00:10:59,735 --> 00:11:01,815
do at Europa. It happens to work out

314
00:11:01,815 --> 00:11:03,894
nicely for a comet where comets are also

315
00:11:03,894 --> 00:11:06,695
constantly getting interactions with the sunlight, and that's

316
00:11:06,695 --> 00:11:08,455
kind of breaking apart some of the molecules

317
00:11:08,455 --> 00:11:10,559
that are making up its gas coma. And

318
00:11:10,559 --> 00:11:12,399
so as those molecules break apart, they send

319
00:11:12,399 --> 00:11:14,639
out these signals to us. Well, they just

320
00:11:14,639 --> 00:11:16,080
send out the signals, and we can capture

321
00:11:16,080 --> 00:11:17,139
those with our cameras

322
00:11:17,519 --> 00:11:20,240
and understand basically what what that composition is.

323
00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:22,160
So it's really a way of understanding what

324
00:11:22,160 --> 00:11:24,184
the comet is made out of. And so

325
00:11:24,184 --> 00:11:24,764
it works

326
00:11:25,144 --> 00:11:26,904
really well as a as a comet instrument

327
00:11:26,904 --> 00:11:29,225
too. And, in fact, there are UV instruments,

328
00:11:29,545 --> 00:11:32,345
that are orbiting Mars and UV instruments on,

329
00:11:32,665 --> 00:11:36,125
the the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter around the moon

330
00:11:36,184 --> 00:11:39,129
that also tried to look at, at, at

331
00:11:39,129 --> 00:11:40,809
three I Atlas, and I'm not sure what

332
00:11:40,809 --> 00:11:42,889
all of those results are yet. But they

333
00:11:43,050 --> 00:11:44,970
and then in Hubble Hubble data and Swift

334
00:11:44,970 --> 00:11:46,570
data. So everything was kind of looking in

335
00:11:46,570 --> 00:11:48,330
the UV. It's really actually a a a

336
00:11:48,330 --> 00:11:50,410
perfect wavelength to be looking at and studying

337
00:11:50,410 --> 00:11:50,835
comets.

338
00:11:51,315 --> 00:11:53,715
And so what did we see so far?

339
00:11:54,035 --> 00:11:55,014
So we saw

340
00:11:55,634 --> 00:11:56,774
some really interesting

341
00:11:57,554 --> 00:11:59,634
signatures. The the main one is that we

342
00:11:59,634 --> 00:12:01,475
we definitely see lots and lots of hydrogen,

343
00:12:01,475 --> 00:12:04,210
which was not unexpected by any stretch. And

344
00:12:04,210 --> 00:12:05,970
we also see a lot of oxygen. Both

345
00:12:05,970 --> 00:12:08,129
of those are coming from the central coma,

346
00:12:08,129 --> 00:12:10,289
that gas that's kind of sublimated off of

347
00:12:10,289 --> 00:12:12,450
the main comet and kinda hangs around the

348
00:12:12,450 --> 00:12:12,950
comet.

349
00:12:13,490 --> 00:12:16,529
That part is completely expected. We also definitely

350
00:12:16,529 --> 00:12:18,625
see other signatures of materials, but we're still

351
00:12:18,625 --> 00:12:21,105
trying to understand our detector because, remember, we

352
00:12:21,105 --> 00:12:22,784
were still in the calibration phase where we're

353
00:12:22,784 --> 00:12:23,284
understanding

354
00:12:23,985 --> 00:12:26,004
exactly how the detector works and what,

355
00:12:26,464 --> 00:12:28,704
the signal the signal's coming in, exactly what

356
00:12:28,704 --> 00:12:31,105
wavelengths they are, and then seeing how much

357
00:12:31,105 --> 00:12:32,909
of that might be carbon or might be,

358
00:12:33,549 --> 00:12:36,589
sulfur or argon or whatever other materials might

359
00:12:36,589 --> 00:12:38,909
be there. And so we are still in

360
00:12:38,909 --> 00:12:40,190
that process of figuring it out, but we

361
00:12:40,190 --> 00:12:41,870
do think we see a a bit of

362
00:12:41,870 --> 00:12:42,929
carbon and,

363
00:12:43,549 --> 00:12:45,009
probably a few other things.

364
00:12:45,335 --> 00:12:47,254
The other main thing that we see definitely

365
00:12:47,254 --> 00:12:49,014
in the data itself is sort of the

366
00:12:49,014 --> 00:12:50,554
scattered light coming from

367
00:12:50,934 --> 00:12:53,014
the from probably from the tail. So we

368
00:12:53,014 --> 00:12:55,254
think that the the dust tail that kind

369
00:12:55,254 --> 00:12:55,835
of gets,

370
00:12:56,695 --> 00:12:58,535
trails off of the edge of the the

371
00:12:58,535 --> 00:12:59,035
comet,

372
00:13:00,490 --> 00:13:02,910
that those different dust particles are basically

373
00:13:03,450 --> 00:13:06,170
scattering sunlight into our into our detector, and

374
00:13:06,170 --> 00:13:07,870
we're measuring those as well.

375
00:13:08,809 --> 00:13:10,809
The intriguing things that we're seeing is that

376
00:13:10,809 --> 00:13:13,529
we definitely see what's known as the tail,

377
00:13:13,529 --> 00:13:15,690
the ion tail, which is usually when the

378
00:13:15,690 --> 00:13:16,184
gas,

379
00:13:16,985 --> 00:13:18,904
sublimates when it when it comes off of

380
00:13:18,904 --> 00:13:19,884
the the comet,

381
00:13:20,424 --> 00:13:22,105
then it interacts with the sun. You have

382
00:13:22,105 --> 00:13:24,184
this pressure from the solar wind, and that

383
00:13:24,184 --> 00:13:25,965
usually makes an anti sunward

384
00:13:26,424 --> 00:13:28,345
tail. We see that one. That one kinda

385
00:13:28,345 --> 00:13:29,705
lines up with kind of all of the

386
00:13:29,705 --> 00:13:30,205
expectations.

387
00:13:30,879 --> 00:13:33,199
But we also see some tail structure going

388
00:13:33,199 --> 00:13:34,259
towards the sun,

389
00:13:34,799 --> 00:13:36,480
and we're not the only ones. Other people

390
00:13:36,480 --> 00:13:38,159
have seen sort of this anti they call

391
00:13:38,159 --> 00:13:39,759
it the anti tail even though it's the

392
00:13:39,759 --> 00:13:41,299
tail that's going towards the sun.

393
00:13:42,159 --> 00:13:44,559
They're seeing other other instruments are seeing that

394
00:13:44,559 --> 00:13:46,339
as well, but we're still trying to figure

395
00:13:46,695 --> 00:13:48,295
the way we're seeing it out. We're seeing

396
00:13:48,295 --> 00:13:50,774
it from a very different perspective than most

397
00:13:50,774 --> 00:13:52,855
of the other spacecrafts that have looked at

398
00:13:52,855 --> 00:13:55,174
this object have seen it. They are you

399
00:13:55,174 --> 00:13:56,855
know, most of the objects most of the

400
00:13:56,855 --> 00:13:59,035
telescopes, the observations have come from,

401
00:13:59,980 --> 00:14:02,220
from Earth based telescopes. Right? It's from Hubble

402
00:14:02,220 --> 00:14:03,199
or from JWST

403
00:14:03,819 --> 00:14:05,279
or from ground based telescopes.

404
00:14:05,740 --> 00:14:07,339
Where we were, we're actually looking at the

405
00:14:07,339 --> 00:14:08,860
night side of the comet. So we're actually

406
00:14:08,860 --> 00:14:10,620
looking the comet is kind of in between

407
00:14:10,620 --> 00:14:12,615
us and the sun, more or less. And

408
00:14:12,615 --> 00:14:14,134
so we're getting it from a very different

409
00:14:14,134 --> 00:14:16,054
angle. And and so far, what we're seeing

410
00:14:16,054 --> 00:14:18,455
on that sunward facing tail and maybe that

411
00:14:18,455 --> 00:14:19,274
dust tail,

412
00:14:20,455 --> 00:14:23,095
is not lining up exactly with what would

413
00:14:23,095 --> 00:14:25,174
be predicted. And so we're trying to figure

414
00:14:25,174 --> 00:14:27,139
out, is it how we're viewing it? Is

415
00:14:27,139 --> 00:14:29,220
it geometry, or is it something that we're

416
00:14:29,220 --> 00:14:30,899
able to see that the other ones can't

417
00:14:30,899 --> 00:14:32,980
because of that unique lighting geometry that we

418
00:14:32,980 --> 00:14:33,480
have?

419
00:14:34,259 --> 00:14:36,899
Okay. I mean but that doesn't mean it's

420
00:14:36,899 --> 00:14:38,980
aliens. Right? No. It definitely does not mean

421
00:14:38,980 --> 00:14:39,639
it's aliens.

422
00:14:41,725 --> 00:14:43,485
I would expect something way more fun than

423
00:14:43,485 --> 00:14:43,985
just

424
00:14:44,365 --> 00:14:46,445
a just a a a tail that's in

425
00:14:46,445 --> 00:14:48,144
the wrong direction if it were aliens.

426
00:14:48,605 --> 00:14:50,205
I would hope it would spill out something

427
00:14:50,205 --> 00:14:51,804
or make it pretty drawing or something like

428
00:14:51,804 --> 00:14:53,884
that. Oh, hey. That would be cool, wouldn't

429
00:14:53,884 --> 00:14:55,169
it? Like, hello.

430
00:14:56,350 --> 00:14:57,950
That sort of thing. I've or maybe they

431
00:14:57,950 --> 00:14:59,710
wouldn't choose English. Who knows? But, well, I

432
00:14:59,710 --> 00:15:01,149
mean, it doesn't make a lot of sense,

433
00:15:01,149 --> 00:15:02,590
does it, that that there'd be a tail

434
00:15:02,590 --> 00:15:03,410
going that way?

435
00:15:04,669 --> 00:15:06,830
Yeah. I don't know. As a not comet

436
00:15:06,830 --> 00:15:08,509
person, as someone who's meant to be studying

437
00:15:08,509 --> 00:15:09,009
Europa,

438
00:15:09,615 --> 00:15:11,535
I think it's not completely unheard of to

439
00:15:11,535 --> 00:15:13,634
see some of these sunward facing

440
00:15:14,415 --> 00:15:16,575
tails, but they're yeah. And it's hard to

441
00:15:16,575 --> 00:15:18,014
say how much of what we're seeing is

442
00:15:18,014 --> 00:15:19,535
coming from the dust, how much of it

443
00:15:19,535 --> 00:15:21,634
is coming from a gas tail that somehow

444
00:15:21,695 --> 00:15:22,674
sunward facing.

445
00:15:23,949 --> 00:15:25,549
I don't know. I mean, it's it's fun

446
00:15:25,549 --> 00:15:26,669
to get to play with it, though, and

447
00:15:26,669 --> 00:15:28,129
try to figure out this mystery.

448
00:15:28,509 --> 00:15:29,949
I think that's probably the best part about

449
00:15:29,949 --> 00:15:30,449
it.

450
00:15:31,309 --> 00:15:32,990
So when you say what you've seen so

451
00:15:32,990 --> 00:15:35,149
far, does that mean because you're going through

452
00:15:35,149 --> 00:15:37,034
the data or you're gonna make more observations?

453
00:15:37,514 --> 00:15:39,834
We cannot make any more observations, so it

454
00:15:39,834 --> 00:15:42,475
really is about processing. It's really still trying

455
00:15:42,475 --> 00:15:44,235
to figure out how our detector is inter

456
00:15:44,554 --> 00:15:47,694
is collecting the data and what that means,

457
00:15:47,995 --> 00:15:49,534
in terms of the exact wavelengths.

458
00:15:50,509 --> 00:15:51,790
And, yeah, there's just a lot of data

459
00:15:51,790 --> 00:15:53,870
there. We did some really cool different types

460
00:15:53,870 --> 00:15:56,110
of studies of it. So we purposefully lined

461
00:15:56,110 --> 00:15:58,429
up our slit, which is very, very narrow

462
00:15:58,429 --> 00:15:59,870
slit, but it's long. It's seven and a

463
00:15:59,870 --> 00:16:02,565
half degrees long by point one degree wide.

464
00:16:02,965 --> 00:16:05,225
And we purposefully lined that up to be,

465
00:16:05,764 --> 00:16:08,004
where the long part was kind of in

466
00:16:08,004 --> 00:16:09,304
that sun, comet,

467
00:16:09,684 --> 00:16:10,504
anti sun

468
00:16:10,884 --> 00:16:13,044
tail direction so that we could capture that

469
00:16:13,044 --> 00:16:14,804
tail. It turns out the tail was even

470
00:16:14,804 --> 00:16:16,024
longer than we expected,

471
00:16:16,519 --> 00:16:18,120
and the coma was even bigger than we

472
00:16:18,120 --> 00:16:19,720
expected. But what we did was that so

473
00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:21,159
because it was narrow, that means we're only

474
00:16:21,159 --> 00:16:23,580
kinda getting a sliver of that sort of

475
00:16:24,039 --> 00:16:26,200
region of space that's the the comet and

476
00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:27,820
the tail and the anti tail.

477
00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:29,080
But then we took the instrument,

478
00:16:29,855 --> 00:16:31,695
well, we took the spacecraft, and and the

479
00:16:31,695 --> 00:16:33,774
the NASA team did a fantastic job planning

480
00:16:33,774 --> 00:16:34,834
this somewhat complicated

481
00:16:35,214 --> 00:16:36,434
movement of the spacecraft

482
00:16:36,815 --> 00:16:39,214
where they they moved our slit down off

483
00:16:39,214 --> 00:16:40,654
the target and then all the way back

484
00:16:40,654 --> 00:16:42,299
up over the target. And we did that

485
00:16:42,299 --> 00:16:44,080
a couple of times. So we actually have

486
00:16:44,379 --> 00:16:45,279
sort of different

487
00:16:45,660 --> 00:16:47,679
time domain data. We have different,

488
00:16:49,100 --> 00:16:51,420
different sort of views of different parts of

489
00:16:51,420 --> 00:16:53,100
the sky with that data. And so, yeah,

490
00:16:53,100 --> 00:16:54,620
there's still just a lot of data to

491
00:16:54,620 --> 00:16:56,399
play with and try to interpret,

492
00:16:56,865 --> 00:16:58,465
and then changes that we might be seeing

493
00:16:58,465 --> 00:16:59,745
over the couple of hours that we were

494
00:16:59,745 --> 00:17:01,825
pointing because I think we took observations over

495
00:17:01,825 --> 00:17:04,144
about eight hours. So any kind of changes

496
00:17:04,144 --> 00:17:06,244
in the emission rates of the gases,

497
00:17:06,625 --> 00:17:07,904
would be a little bit more subtle, and

498
00:17:07,904 --> 00:17:09,444
we have to kind of do the analysis

499
00:17:09,825 --> 00:17:10,964
a little bit more carefully.

500
00:17:11,430 --> 00:17:13,430
And while Europa Clipper isn't going to be

501
00:17:13,430 --> 00:17:16,390
collecting more data, we do have actually really

502
00:17:16,390 --> 00:17:18,250
cool data from the JUICE mission.

503
00:17:18,710 --> 00:17:20,869
The JUICE mission is a European Space Agency

504
00:17:20,869 --> 00:17:22,730
mission, and we have a sister

505
00:17:23,190 --> 00:17:26,410
instrument, another UV instrument, onboard that mission called

506
00:17:26,605 --> 00:17:27,424
Juice UVS.

507
00:17:27,804 --> 00:17:30,944
And so that telescope is actually observing,

508
00:17:31,644 --> 00:17:34,524
observed at the same time as the UV

509
00:17:34,524 --> 00:17:35,825
data from Europa Clipper.

510
00:17:36,204 --> 00:17:38,924
And more fast like, what's gonna be super

511
00:17:38,924 --> 00:17:40,524
cool about that data, we don't have that

512
00:17:40,524 --> 00:17:42,230
data yet. So there is still analysis to

513
00:17:42,230 --> 00:17:42,889
be done.

514
00:17:43,269 --> 00:17:45,750
That data, because of the geometry of where

515
00:17:45,750 --> 00:17:47,509
Juice is right now, it can't send back

516
00:17:47,509 --> 00:17:49,109
a lot of data just yet. So we're

517
00:17:49,109 --> 00:17:50,169
expecting that data,

518
00:17:50,470 --> 00:17:52,230
in the coming months to to come down,

519
00:17:52,230 --> 00:17:53,994
and then we can analyze it. But what's

520
00:17:53,994 --> 00:17:55,694
super cool about that is that

521
00:17:56,154 --> 00:17:58,714
JUICE was kind of positioned closer to the

522
00:17:58,714 --> 00:18:00,494
sun. So it's looking at the comet

523
00:18:00,875 --> 00:18:02,554
from the perspective of the sun. So it's

524
00:18:02,554 --> 00:18:04,315
gonna see sort of some of that reflected

525
00:18:04,315 --> 00:18:06,315
light as well as the light that's,

526
00:18:06,794 --> 00:18:08,974
still being emitted in that auroral fashion.

527
00:18:09,329 --> 00:18:11,669
And then Europa Clipper was looking at it

528
00:18:11,809 --> 00:18:14,049
almost completely from the night side. So they're

529
00:18:14,049 --> 00:18:16,289
from two totally different angles we're gonna be

530
00:18:16,289 --> 00:18:18,210
able to collect that data. And that's really

531
00:18:18,210 --> 00:18:19,109
important because

532
00:18:20,130 --> 00:18:22,869
things like dust, for example, if it's big

533
00:18:23,329 --> 00:18:25,805
chunks of dust, reflect light. But when you

534
00:18:25,805 --> 00:18:28,465
have, like, little tiny dust particles, they backscatter

535
00:18:28,525 --> 00:18:29,965
light. So just like when you're kind of

536
00:18:29,965 --> 00:18:31,884
in your kitchen or in your bedroom and

537
00:18:31,884 --> 00:18:33,805
you get that beautiful, like, sunbeam in and

538
00:18:33,805 --> 00:18:35,965
suddenly you realize, wow, my room's really dusty.

539
00:18:35,965 --> 00:18:38,500
Like, there's dust floating around everywhere. That's because

540
00:18:38,500 --> 00:18:41,380
those dust particles are backscattering light. You're not

541
00:18:41,380 --> 00:18:43,700
ever standing in the sunbeam. You're looking at

542
00:18:43,700 --> 00:18:45,619
the sun and the sunbeam, and that those

543
00:18:45,619 --> 00:18:47,700
dust particles get highlighted in that way.

544
00:18:48,019 --> 00:18:49,940
That's what Europa Clipper will be seeing, those

545
00:18:49,940 --> 00:18:51,765
smallest particles from that perspective.

546
00:18:52,164 --> 00:18:54,244
But Juice, looking at it from the other

547
00:18:54,244 --> 00:18:54,744
perspective,

548
00:18:55,045 --> 00:18:57,224
will see a different set of particle sizes,

549
00:18:57,684 --> 00:19:00,164
because it's got this different observing geometry. So

550
00:19:00,164 --> 00:19:01,785
that's one of the things that makes it

551
00:19:01,924 --> 00:19:03,684
really cool is looking at one thing from

552
00:19:03,684 --> 00:19:06,085
multiple angles gets us a lot more information.

553
00:19:06,085 --> 00:19:08,400
And so we will be able to do

554
00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:10,480
a even better analysis of the CLIPr data

555
00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:11,919
when we can also see what happened with

556
00:19:11,919 --> 00:19:12,819
the JUICE data.

557
00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:14,960
You said there was carbon in it. Would

558
00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:16,480
you expect to see that in comments? Yeah.

559
00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:18,960
So from my understanding is that this object

560
00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:20,500
in particular has actually

561
00:19:20,884 --> 00:19:22,744
shown way more carbon.

562
00:19:23,204 --> 00:19:25,204
It's had a higher carbon to water ratio

563
00:19:25,204 --> 00:19:27,944
than any than most or all,

564
00:19:29,684 --> 00:19:31,284
comets that have been observed from our own

565
00:19:31,284 --> 00:19:33,065
solar system. And that

566
00:19:33,679 --> 00:19:36,579
could be indicative of sort of what the

567
00:19:36,799 --> 00:19:39,359
chemical makeup of the solar system that this

568
00:19:39,359 --> 00:19:41,919
thing formed in is. Like, is it just

569
00:19:41,919 --> 00:19:44,000
a more carbon rich solar system? Is that

570
00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:45,539
the norm, or is ours the norm?

571
00:19:46,744 --> 00:19:49,225
We don't know. And so we, we're not

572
00:19:49,225 --> 00:19:50,924
surprised to see carbon in general,

573
00:19:51,384 --> 00:19:53,625
but some of the observations have shown a

574
00:19:53,625 --> 00:19:55,945
really high percentage of carbon to oxygen or

575
00:19:55,945 --> 00:19:56,924
carbon to water.

576
00:19:57,225 --> 00:19:59,485
And I don't think our data is showing

577
00:19:59,545 --> 00:20:01,450
it to be quite that much, but we're

578
00:20:01,450 --> 00:20:03,130
also a lot closer to the sun now.

579
00:20:03,130 --> 00:20:04,910
So a lot of those observations started,

580
00:20:05,850 --> 00:20:07,289
when the comet was still pretty far out.

581
00:20:07,289 --> 00:20:08,650
It was out by the orbit of Jupiter.

582
00:20:08,650 --> 00:20:09,390
And so

583
00:20:10,090 --> 00:20:12,009
that's what's made this object so exciting is

584
00:20:12,009 --> 00:20:13,450
that we've known about it for a long

585
00:20:13,450 --> 00:20:15,505
time before we got to its, before it

586
00:20:15,505 --> 00:20:16,704
got close to the sun, and we were

587
00:20:16,704 --> 00:20:19,345
able to then see it start sublimating different

588
00:20:19,345 --> 00:20:19,845
materials,

589
00:20:20,704 --> 00:20:22,724
pretty early on in it on its pathway

590
00:20:22,785 --> 00:20:23,845
towards the sun.

591
00:20:24,384 --> 00:20:26,625
And even that part has been unique for

592
00:20:26,625 --> 00:20:28,484
it. Like, the fact that it started sublimating

593
00:20:28,704 --> 00:20:30,005
and being detectable

594
00:20:30,305 --> 00:20:32,380
that far out might be a sign that

595
00:20:32,380 --> 00:20:33,100
this object,

596
00:20:33,500 --> 00:20:35,279
has never been close to a star before.

597
00:20:35,340 --> 00:20:37,820
So this object could have been been formed

598
00:20:37,820 --> 00:20:39,660
pretty far out from its host star and

599
00:20:39,660 --> 00:20:41,259
launched out of the solar system before it

600
00:20:41,259 --> 00:20:42,460
ever had a chance to get close to

601
00:20:42,460 --> 00:20:44,304
it. And that might be why it started

602
00:20:44,304 --> 00:20:46,304
sublimating so early as it came into our

603
00:20:46,304 --> 00:20:48,704
solar system. And so it's a really unique

604
00:20:48,704 --> 00:20:50,804
opportunity to see some of the, like, primitive

605
00:20:51,664 --> 00:20:54,244
ices and volatiles that were on this object.

606
00:20:54,784 --> 00:20:58,000
Basically, some of the the most natural formed

607
00:20:58,059 --> 00:21:00,140
materials from its solar system as it comes

608
00:21:00,140 --> 00:21:02,559
into ours. And so that's a very rare,

609
00:21:02,940 --> 00:21:05,279
very cool opportunity for setting this object.

610
00:21:06,700 --> 00:21:07,575
Do you know,

611
00:21:08,294 --> 00:21:10,134
do people know do you know if if

612
00:21:10,694 --> 00:21:12,954
because of the trajectory it's come from, whereabouts

613
00:21:13,174 --> 00:21:15,815
in space it's coming? Not me personally. But,

614
00:21:16,454 --> 00:21:18,454
yeah, there is an there there have been

615
00:21:18,454 --> 00:21:21,255
studies on basically, its trajectory points to it

616
00:21:21,255 --> 00:21:24,099
being from a a pretty old portion of

617
00:21:24,099 --> 00:21:24,839
our galaxy.

618
00:21:25,299 --> 00:21:28,339
And so it's probably been traveling for billions

619
00:21:28,339 --> 00:21:30,660
and billions of years and probably came from

620
00:21:30,660 --> 00:21:32,980
a solar system that that was forget the

621
00:21:32,980 --> 00:21:34,740
exact age now, but much, much older than

622
00:21:34,740 --> 00:21:36,825
our own solar system. And so that's

623
00:21:37,304 --> 00:21:38,605
also very cool because

624
00:21:38,984 --> 00:21:40,904
that could indicate, you know, the way that

625
00:21:40,904 --> 00:21:42,585
we get a lot of the materials spread

626
00:21:42,585 --> 00:21:44,744
through the solar system is through supernova that

627
00:21:44,744 --> 00:21:46,904
kind of has some of that material. They

628
00:21:46,904 --> 00:21:48,904
burn the material. They create the next level

629
00:21:48,904 --> 00:21:50,264
up. Like, they burn the hydrogen and the

630
00:21:50,264 --> 00:21:51,724
oxygen the hydrogen and

631
00:21:52,769 --> 00:21:54,930
and, the helium, and then they can make

632
00:21:54,930 --> 00:21:56,390
the higher, the heavier,

633
00:21:56,690 --> 00:21:59,650
quote, unquote, elements like oxygen and carbons and

634
00:21:59,650 --> 00:22:01,410
and everything else that we have all comes

635
00:22:01,410 --> 00:22:03,090
from sort of you know, we're all made

636
00:22:03,090 --> 00:22:05,154
out of stardust. Right? And so that those

637
00:22:05,154 --> 00:22:06,914
materials are formed inside the star. So if

638
00:22:06,914 --> 00:22:08,994
this is a more ancient solar system, it

639
00:22:08,994 --> 00:22:10,375
may lack some of those,

640
00:22:10,835 --> 00:22:12,755
the or at least lack the, the same

641
00:22:12,755 --> 00:22:13,894
ratio or abundances

642
00:22:14,434 --> 00:22:15,875
that we have in our solar system, which

643
00:22:15,875 --> 00:22:17,894
is a more a younger, hipper

644
00:22:18,195 --> 00:22:20,599
solar system, so to speak. And so understanding

645
00:22:20,660 --> 00:22:23,240
those ratios even from just this one opportunity

646
00:22:23,299 --> 00:22:24,039
to see this

647
00:22:24,420 --> 00:22:25,720
semi pristine object,

648
00:22:26,420 --> 00:22:28,500
is a really cool opportunity to understand how

649
00:22:28,500 --> 00:22:31,299
other solar systems form and what's the genetic

650
00:22:31,299 --> 00:22:33,559
makeup of those solar systems compared to ours.

651
00:22:33,664 --> 00:22:35,424
So you say pristine, but it's it's traveled

652
00:22:35,424 --> 00:22:37,444
a long way through space. Right? So that's

653
00:22:37,585 --> 00:22:39,744
changed. That's a very good point. Yes. So

654
00:22:39,744 --> 00:22:42,944
it is being exposed to constant, cosmic ray

655
00:22:43,184 --> 00:22:45,265
radiation, and some of the observations have shown

656
00:22:45,265 --> 00:22:46,460
that that probably

657
00:22:47,079 --> 00:22:48,679
affects the outer parts of the,

658
00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:51,319
of the comet itself as it's been traveling.

659
00:22:51,319 --> 00:22:53,319
And so there is definitely some alteration. It's

660
00:22:53,319 --> 00:22:56,039
not not oh, unfortunately, after billions of years,

661
00:22:56,039 --> 00:22:57,740
nothing's very, very pristine anywhere.

662
00:22:58,359 --> 00:22:58,839
But,

663
00:22:59,744 --> 00:23:01,825
but, yeah, it hasn't been from what we

664
00:23:01,825 --> 00:23:04,144
think, at least, it probably hasn't been heated

665
00:23:04,144 --> 00:23:06,305
the to the level that most of the

666
00:23:06,305 --> 00:23:08,545
comets that have kind of been on multiple

667
00:23:08,545 --> 00:23:10,785
journeys around our sun have or, like, the

668
00:23:10,785 --> 00:23:13,184
asteroids, for example, that are super overly heated.

669
00:23:13,184 --> 00:23:14,565
And so you really do lose

670
00:23:14,869 --> 00:23:15,930
some of those initial,

671
00:23:17,750 --> 00:23:19,830
compositions that were kind of frozen in in

672
00:23:19,830 --> 00:23:20,330
time,

673
00:23:20,710 --> 00:23:22,390
and can stay frozen if they don't get

674
00:23:22,390 --> 00:23:23,450
too too hot.

675
00:23:25,269 --> 00:23:27,269
And so it's very fast moving. Does that

676
00:23:27,269 --> 00:23:29,384
make it difficult to observe, or is it

677
00:23:29,625 --> 00:23:31,244
does that not make a difference?

678
00:23:32,265 --> 00:23:33,865
It does make a difference. Yeah. So it

679
00:23:33,865 --> 00:23:36,605
depends on your spacecraft or your telescope.

680
00:23:36,904 --> 00:23:38,585
The ones on Earth can track things pretty

681
00:23:38,585 --> 00:23:39,724
easily, I think, because,

682
00:23:40,025 --> 00:23:41,945
we have the mechanics to just keep, you

683
00:23:41,945 --> 00:23:42,445
know,

684
00:23:43,384 --> 00:23:44,960
track we just say track, and it and

685
00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:45,619
it tracks.

686
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:47,460
Engineering's a wonderful thing.

687
00:23:47,759 --> 00:23:49,140
But some for some spacecraft,

688
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:52,160
moving targets are hard to do. For example,

689
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:52,660
JWST

690
00:23:53,279 --> 00:23:54,740
was designed to study astrophysical

691
00:23:55,039 --> 00:23:57,220
objects. They're not supposed to move very fast.

692
00:23:57,825 --> 00:23:59,585
But I think it's gotten some incredible data

693
00:23:59,585 --> 00:24:00,784
of this target, so I don't think this

694
00:24:00,784 --> 00:24:02,464
one was moving too fast for it. But

695
00:24:02,464 --> 00:24:03,444
there are some,

696
00:24:04,065 --> 00:24:05,984
objects, for example, that would be moving too

697
00:24:05,984 --> 00:24:08,384
fast for Hubble or JWST or even for

698
00:24:08,384 --> 00:24:09,284
Europa Clipper.

699
00:24:09,585 --> 00:24:10,964
But we were able to,

700
00:24:11,690 --> 00:24:13,690
to hold on to it perfectly. Again, the

701
00:24:13,690 --> 00:24:15,769
the spacecraft team, the engineering team on Europa

702
00:24:15,769 --> 00:24:16,910
Clipper was able to

703
00:24:17,369 --> 00:24:19,210
set up this observation within two and a

704
00:24:19,210 --> 00:24:19,869
half months

705
00:24:20,170 --> 00:24:22,089
and figure out how to track it, and

706
00:24:22,089 --> 00:24:24,429
everything worked really, really well. So our observations

707
00:24:24,490 --> 00:24:25,470
are are beautiful.

708
00:24:25,849 --> 00:24:29,134
Europa, right, completely full of waters. Do I

709
00:24:29,375 --> 00:24:31,134
is it possible that that water came from

710
00:24:31,134 --> 00:24:31,634
comets?

711
00:24:32,494 --> 00:24:32,994
It's

712
00:24:33,295 --> 00:24:35,474
possible that some of the water there

713
00:24:35,775 --> 00:24:36,275
are

714
00:24:36,575 --> 00:24:39,934
contributions from comets, but the the place where

715
00:24:39,934 --> 00:24:41,555
Europa formed, it's actually

716
00:24:41,970 --> 00:24:43,509
just an area where water

717
00:24:44,289 --> 00:24:45,349
could be stable.

718
00:24:45,650 --> 00:24:47,970
And so water is very abundant across our

719
00:24:47,970 --> 00:24:50,210
solar system, and the reason we don't think

720
00:24:50,210 --> 00:24:51,429
Earth's water is

721
00:24:51,809 --> 00:24:54,289
sort of from the beginning is just that

722
00:24:54,289 --> 00:24:56,289
we're much closer to the sun. And so

723
00:24:56,289 --> 00:24:58,424
it should have all kind of heated off

724
00:24:58,424 --> 00:25:00,105
at some point in the in the multiple

725
00:25:00,105 --> 00:25:01,724
processes that the Earth underwent.

726
00:25:02,105 --> 00:25:03,944
Certainly, some of those major impacts, including the

727
00:25:03,944 --> 00:25:05,544
one that may have formed the moon. And

728
00:25:05,544 --> 00:25:07,224
so we don't think we could have held

729
00:25:07,224 --> 00:25:09,164
on to the sort of initial

730
00:25:09,704 --> 00:25:11,304
inventory of water that would have been in

731
00:25:11,304 --> 00:25:13,509
the solar system. But Europa is further out.

732
00:25:13,509 --> 00:25:15,369
It's past what we call the snow line,

733
00:25:15,509 --> 00:25:16,330
which is where,

734
00:25:17,830 --> 00:25:20,390
liquid or solid water ice could kind of

735
00:25:20,390 --> 00:25:23,670
still stay stable. And so Europa probably formed

736
00:25:23,670 --> 00:25:25,454
with most of the water that it has.

737
00:25:26,095 --> 00:25:28,894
And then, certainly, it's probably been bombarded by

738
00:25:28,894 --> 00:25:30,894
other objects, asteroids that are water rich or

739
00:25:30,894 --> 00:25:33,154
comets that may contribute and change,

740
00:25:33,615 --> 00:25:34,914
its overall water

741
00:25:35,214 --> 00:25:37,294
con like, water amount or,

742
00:25:38,015 --> 00:25:39,690
style of water too because it can have

743
00:25:39,769 --> 00:25:41,529
different sort of what we call d to

744
00:25:41,529 --> 00:25:44,009
h ratio, the different kind of, levels of

745
00:25:44,009 --> 00:25:45,769
hydrogen, types of hydrogen that make up the

746
00:25:45,769 --> 00:25:46,589
h two o.

747
00:25:47,849 --> 00:25:49,210
So, yeah, I mean, it it can be,

748
00:25:49,210 --> 00:25:51,049
but most of it's water. It's it's a

749
00:25:51,049 --> 00:25:52,694
natural comet in that sense.

750
00:25:53,255 --> 00:25:54,474
I've spoken to,

751
00:25:55,815 --> 00:25:58,615
scientists involved in in in sort of distant

752
00:25:58,615 --> 00:25:59,434
space missions

753
00:26:00,294 --> 00:26:02,534
over the years, and I don't think I've

754
00:26:02,534 --> 00:26:05,034
ever spoken to somebody who's kind of,

755
00:26:05,654 --> 00:26:07,580
you know, done this. Or they're on the

756
00:26:07,580 --> 00:26:09,900
way somewhere, and then they've just thought, yeah,

757
00:26:09,900 --> 00:26:12,299
we could look at that. So let's see

758
00:26:12,299 --> 00:26:14,299
if we can. Is is it normal, this

759
00:26:14,299 --> 00:26:15,119
kind of behavior?

760
00:26:15,740 --> 00:26:17,820
It can be. So I think it's more

761
00:26:18,619 --> 00:26:21,019
we don't usually get surprise visitors or that

762
00:26:21,019 --> 00:26:22,525
we know about at least. So that part's

763
00:26:22,525 --> 00:26:23,424
been really exciting.

764
00:26:23,805 --> 00:26:26,684
There is often the opportunity to observe maybe

765
00:26:26,684 --> 00:26:28,684
an asteroid that we're passing close to on

766
00:26:28,684 --> 00:26:30,224
our way out. So there have been

767
00:26:30,605 --> 00:26:33,164
observations of asteroids in the main belt, or

768
00:26:33,164 --> 00:26:35,484
even near Earth asteroids as a spacecraft is

769
00:26:35,484 --> 00:26:36,785
kind of on its main journey.

770
00:26:38,069 --> 00:26:40,309
But, again, it makes such a good opportunity

771
00:26:40,309 --> 00:26:41,990
to test out how all the instruments work

772
00:26:41,990 --> 00:26:44,230
when you can observe something two years before

773
00:26:44,230 --> 00:26:45,609
you get to your main target.

774
00:26:46,069 --> 00:26:48,069
Once we get to Europa, it's gonna be

775
00:26:48,069 --> 00:26:50,730
rapid fire. We're gonna be doing, 50 flybys

776
00:26:50,869 --> 00:26:52,904
within three and a half years. And so

777
00:26:52,904 --> 00:26:55,224
we're gonna be getting data, looking at the

778
00:26:55,224 --> 00:26:56,345
data. As soon as we get the data,

779
00:26:56,345 --> 00:26:57,944
we were gonna wanna figure out how we

780
00:26:57,944 --> 00:26:59,865
wanna, you know, set up our detector for

781
00:26:59,865 --> 00:27:01,704
the next observation. And it's gonna be so,

782
00:27:01,704 --> 00:27:03,404
so fast that we're not gonna have

783
00:27:03,784 --> 00:27:05,404
that much time to sit and

784
00:27:06,105 --> 00:27:09,200
work and fully understand how the detector itself

785
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:11,440
is. You know, all of these detectors have

786
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:12,579
little quirks, and,

787
00:27:13,679 --> 00:27:15,759
they're complicated. Right? You're they're not just your

788
00:27:15,759 --> 00:27:17,119
cell phone camera. And even your cell phone

789
00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:18,720
camera has a lot of calibration that goes

790
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:20,079
into it before it ends up in your

791
00:27:20,079 --> 00:27:21,974
cell phone. And so you have to figure

792
00:27:21,974 --> 00:27:24,154
it out. It's these are all custom designed

793
00:27:24,215 --> 00:27:26,055
specifically for the missions that they're on. And

794
00:27:26,055 --> 00:27:26,555
so,

795
00:27:27,654 --> 00:27:29,494
yeah, we will it it's much better when

796
00:27:29,494 --> 00:27:31,595
you can get one of these kinda surprise

797
00:27:31,654 --> 00:27:32,154
or

798
00:27:32,535 --> 00:27:33,355
or fortuitous

799
00:27:33,980 --> 00:27:35,820
opportunities to observe on your way to the

800
00:27:35,820 --> 00:27:37,900
target rather than waiting until you get there.

801
00:27:38,140 --> 00:27:40,220
So it's been done before, but I don't

802
00:27:40,220 --> 00:27:42,480
know of one where it's like, oh, surprise.

803
00:27:42,539 --> 00:27:44,480
We just found found the object.

804
00:27:45,259 --> 00:27:47,259
One, actually, one I'll take that back. So

805
00:27:47,259 --> 00:27:48,720
one other example would be,

806
00:27:49,294 --> 00:27:51,294
in some ways, is the New Horizons mission,

807
00:27:51,294 --> 00:27:53,294
which I also work on. But, you know,

808
00:27:53,294 --> 00:27:55,214
that one was destined to go to Pluto

809
00:27:55,214 --> 00:27:56,734
and then to go and explore the Kuiper

810
00:27:56,734 --> 00:27:58,115
Belt, but it wasn't guaranteed

811
00:27:58,654 --> 00:28:00,914
that there would be an object for it

812
00:28:01,534 --> 00:28:03,214
to do a second flyby of. Once it

813
00:28:03,214 --> 00:28:05,509
got past Pluto, there wasn't a guarantee of

814
00:28:05,509 --> 00:28:07,029
finding something else that it could look at.

815
00:28:07,029 --> 00:28:09,450
And then, fortunately, through lots of,

816
00:28:10,149 --> 00:28:12,389
observations and surveys of the Kuiper Belt, then

817
00:28:12,389 --> 00:28:13,529
they were able to find,

818
00:28:14,230 --> 00:28:16,230
Arrokoth, which ended up being the next flyby

819
00:28:16,230 --> 00:28:18,964
target, for New Horizons. So that one may

820
00:28:18,964 --> 00:28:20,644
be less of a surprise in that sense.

821
00:28:20,644 --> 00:28:22,404
Like, they wanted to do that anyway, but

822
00:28:22,404 --> 00:28:23,765
they had to look for it before they

823
00:28:23,765 --> 00:28:26,164
could. Is it all solar powered? Have you

824
00:28:26,164 --> 00:28:27,365
used some of the battery that you'd be

825
00:28:27,365 --> 00:28:28,724
able to use elsewhere, or is it all

826
00:28:28,724 --> 00:28:31,299
solar powered? Yeah. Europa Clipper has these huge

827
00:28:31,299 --> 00:28:33,700
solar panels that are when when you fold

828
00:28:33,700 --> 00:28:34,900
them all the way out, they're the size

829
00:28:34,900 --> 00:28:36,039
of a basketball court.

830
00:28:36,500 --> 00:28:39,400
So it's a massive spacecraft, massive solar panels.

831
00:28:39,460 --> 00:28:42,019
That's where, most of the power is coming

832
00:28:42,019 --> 00:28:43,320
from. We don't have anything

833
00:28:43,934 --> 00:28:45,855
like, RTGs that have been on some of

834
00:28:45,855 --> 00:28:47,875
the more deep space missions.

835
00:28:49,134 --> 00:28:51,534
There's also some forms of propellant on there,

836
00:28:51,534 --> 00:28:52,115
I think.

837
00:28:52,575 --> 00:28:53,075
But,

838
00:28:53,855 --> 00:28:56,014
the majority of the powering of the of

839
00:28:56,014 --> 00:28:58,034
the spacecraft comes from the solar

840
00:28:58,380 --> 00:29:01,099
power generated power. Right. So just quickly on

841
00:29:01,099 --> 00:29:03,180
the horizon because it can't not.

842
00:29:03,980 --> 00:29:06,559
Amazing images of Pluto that came from that.

843
00:29:06,700 --> 00:29:08,299
That's kind of the thing that caught the

844
00:29:08,299 --> 00:29:09,680
public attention particularly

845
00:29:10,140 --> 00:29:12,075
after that sort of thing. Does that you

846
00:29:12,075 --> 00:29:14,075
know, as a UV specialist, do you do

847
00:29:14,075 --> 00:29:15,914
you want people to be more focused on

848
00:29:15,914 --> 00:29:16,654
the UV?

849
00:29:17,434 --> 00:29:20,075
I think any interest in a planetary body

850
00:29:20,075 --> 00:29:21,615
is a good thing to have.

851
00:29:22,234 --> 00:29:23,835
I do try to talk up the UV.

852
00:29:23,835 --> 00:29:25,970
I think people don't think about the world

853
00:29:25,970 --> 00:29:27,490
in the UV. Right? I mean, our eyes

854
00:29:27,490 --> 00:29:28,930
see in the visible, so it makes sense

855
00:29:28,930 --> 00:29:31,110
to want to see those visible color images.

856
00:29:31,650 --> 00:29:33,090
But one of the powers of the UV

857
00:29:33,090 --> 00:29:34,150
is that it is

858
00:29:34,610 --> 00:29:37,890
seeing, you know, information that our eyes and

859
00:29:37,890 --> 00:29:41,115
our regular visible cameras can't see, especially when

860
00:29:41,115 --> 00:29:42,894
it comes to those kind of elemental

861
00:29:43,195 --> 00:29:44,795
materials like I was saying in the in

862
00:29:44,795 --> 00:29:45,535
the atmospheres.

863
00:29:46,075 --> 00:29:47,755
One of the main ways we study in

864
00:29:47,755 --> 00:29:50,474
the UV these bodies, not so much Pluto,

865
00:29:50,474 --> 00:29:53,434
but Europa has an atmosphere. The comet is

866
00:29:53,434 --> 00:29:56,220
obviously emitting light. It's it's those auroral emissions.

867
00:29:56,700 --> 00:29:58,460
So you're actually seeing the aurora in many

868
00:29:58,460 --> 00:29:59,440
ways with the UV

869
00:29:59,900 --> 00:30:01,919
of of these different bodies. And so,

870
00:30:02,299 --> 00:30:03,740
and the aurora that you see in the

871
00:30:03,740 --> 00:30:05,900
UV is gonna be slightly different, than the

872
00:30:05,900 --> 00:30:07,819
aurora that you would see in the visible.

873
00:30:07,819 --> 00:30:09,339
And so it could tell you either you

874
00:30:09,339 --> 00:30:10,140
can kinda get,

875
00:30:10,654 --> 00:30:12,414
you know, oxygen has a rural emissions in

876
00:30:12,414 --> 00:30:14,894
both UV and in oxygen, but you can

877
00:30:14,894 --> 00:30:16,034
understand more about

878
00:30:16,414 --> 00:30:18,174
how much oxygen must be there if you're

879
00:30:18,335 --> 00:30:19,934
depending on the ratio you see in the

880
00:30:19,934 --> 00:30:21,855
UV versus the visible. But then there are

881
00:30:21,855 --> 00:30:24,174
other materials that won't have a rural emissions

882
00:30:24,174 --> 00:30:26,029
in the visible that do in the UV

883
00:30:26,029 --> 00:30:27,950
and vice versa. And so you kind of

884
00:30:27,950 --> 00:30:29,009
want to look at everything,

885
00:30:29,869 --> 00:30:32,349
from as many different eyes and eye styles

886
00:30:32,349 --> 00:30:34,029
as you can to get the full picture

887
00:30:34,029 --> 00:30:36,109
of what's going on with any object in

888
00:30:36,109 --> 00:30:37,950
the solar system. So we don't see the

889
00:30:37,950 --> 00:30:39,170
UV, but there are,

890
00:30:39,869 --> 00:30:41,704
creatures on Earth that do. Right?

891
00:30:42,724 --> 00:30:43,865
Yeah. I think bees

892
00:30:45,044 --> 00:30:46,505
and probably some other ones,

893
00:30:46,964 --> 00:30:48,484
but these are the ones that I know.

894
00:30:48,484 --> 00:30:50,164
But it's cool. Yeah. Because and I don't

895
00:30:50,164 --> 00:30:52,164
know the extent of what bees can see.

896
00:30:52,164 --> 00:30:54,710
Like, do they see the UV and all

897
00:30:54,710 --> 00:30:56,230
of the colors that we see, or does,

898
00:30:56,230 --> 00:30:58,250
like, their eyes cut off at,

899
00:30:59,269 --> 00:31:00,629
green? I I don't know.

900
00:31:01,190 --> 00:31:03,029
But it could be. And so, yeah, and

901
00:31:03,029 --> 00:31:04,789
some animals can see into the infrared, which

902
00:31:04,789 --> 00:31:06,629
is also a really powerful part of the

903
00:31:06,629 --> 00:31:09,184
of of the spectrum for understanding, like, mineralogy

904
00:31:09,325 --> 00:31:12,125
of of rocks and and materials. Because it's

905
00:31:12,125 --> 00:31:13,964
it's tempting to think of the visual from

906
00:31:13,964 --> 00:31:16,045
our perspective as being the world as it

907
00:31:16,045 --> 00:31:18,204
is, but, you know, there are literally things

908
00:31:18,204 --> 00:31:21,090
flying around us that that see the UV

909
00:31:21,090 --> 00:31:22,869
that you're studying. It's brilliant.

910
00:31:23,170 --> 00:31:25,250
Yeah. And it makes sense for humans' eyes

911
00:31:25,250 --> 00:31:27,890
to be focused on the visible because the

912
00:31:27,890 --> 00:31:29,349
UV is very hard.

913
00:31:29,809 --> 00:31:31,454
We don't get a lot of UV light

914
00:31:32,015 --> 00:31:33,794
through our atmosphere. Our atmosphere

915
00:31:34,414 --> 00:31:36,255
absorbs most of the sunlight that's coming in

916
00:31:36,255 --> 00:31:38,255
the UV. The stuff that does get through,

917
00:31:38,255 --> 00:31:39,774
of course, burns our skin and things like

918
00:31:39,774 --> 00:31:41,154
that, so we have to be careful.

919
00:31:41,615 --> 00:31:44,414
But we can't do UV observations from Earth

920
00:31:44,414 --> 00:31:46,414
based telescopes, which is also why you don't

921
00:31:46,414 --> 00:31:47,009
hear about,

922
00:31:47,490 --> 00:31:49,410
UV data as often, I think, because the

923
00:31:49,410 --> 00:31:51,490
only way to collect UV data is from

924
00:31:51,490 --> 00:31:53,329
space. You have to be up above the

925
00:31:53,329 --> 00:31:53,829
atmosphere.

926
00:31:54,130 --> 00:31:54,869
And so,

927
00:31:55,410 --> 00:31:57,109
assets like the Hubble Space Telescope

928
00:31:57,410 --> 00:31:59,250
observing the UV and then all of these

929
00:31:59,250 --> 00:32:01,329
spacecraft observing the UV, but you can't go

930
00:32:01,329 --> 00:32:02,975
to, like, a a nice telescope at the

931
00:32:02,975 --> 00:32:03,795
top of a mountain

932
00:32:04,335 --> 00:32:06,174
and get UV data. It's harder to get.

933
00:32:06,174 --> 00:32:08,355
It's rarer to get, but it's still extremely

934
00:32:08,414 --> 00:32:10,575
powerful. We'll hear more from Michelle later in

935
00:32:10,575 --> 00:32:12,654
the podcast. But I wanted to know more

936
00:32:12,654 --> 00:32:14,515
about this fascinating mission,

937
00:32:15,029 --> 00:32:18,150
comet interceptor, one of the most audacious wait

938
00:32:18,150 --> 00:32:21,190
and see projects in the history of space

939
00:32:21,190 --> 00:32:21,690
exploration.

940
00:32:22,230 --> 00:32:25,049
With the famous Rosetta mission to 67 p,

941
00:32:25,269 --> 00:32:26,330
we had years,

942
00:32:26,789 --> 00:32:29,609
even decades to study the target from afar.

943
00:32:29,684 --> 00:32:31,545
We know the orbit, the size.

944
00:32:32,005 --> 00:32:34,005
But the thing with those comets is that

945
00:32:34,005 --> 00:32:37,045
they are short period comets. They've been around

946
00:32:37,045 --> 00:32:39,384
the sun many times, and therefore,

947
00:32:39,684 --> 00:32:40,424
they're weathered,

948
00:32:41,045 --> 00:32:44,265
heat blasted, and altered. And that's why scientists

949
00:32:44,404 --> 00:32:46,710
really want the sort of comet that they'd

950
00:32:46,710 --> 00:32:49,369
be able to catch with comet interceptor.

951
00:32:50,630 --> 00:32:52,869
If a comet that had spent a long

952
00:32:52,869 --> 00:32:55,529
time in deep freeze in space,

953
00:32:55,990 --> 00:32:58,230
perhaps somewhere in the Oort Cloud got nudged

954
00:32:58,230 --> 00:33:00,045
out and towards us,

955
00:33:00,424 --> 00:33:01,805
then lying in wait

956
00:33:02,424 --> 00:33:03,805
will be comet

957
00:33:04,184 --> 00:33:04,684
interceptor.

958
00:33:05,305 --> 00:33:08,525
Now in this conversation, you'll hear the term

959
00:33:08,664 --> 00:33:12,025
Lagrange points. They're named after the mathematician, Joseph

960
00:33:12,025 --> 00:33:12,845
Louis Lagrange,

961
00:33:13,359 --> 00:33:14,819
and they are gravitational

962
00:33:15,119 --> 00:33:18,159
sweet spots in space where something like a

963
00:33:18,159 --> 00:33:21,839
small satellite or indeed the comet interceptor project

964
00:33:21,839 --> 00:33:24,500
spacecraft can stay in a fixed position

965
00:33:25,039 --> 00:33:28,179
relative to the Earth and the sun, enabling

966
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:28,899
the spacecraft

967
00:33:29,325 --> 00:33:33,105
to effectively hover in space using very little

968
00:33:33,164 --> 00:33:37,164
fuel. Here's ESA scientist, Michel Kuepes. I'm working

969
00:33:37,164 --> 00:33:39,184
on the comet interceptor mission,

970
00:33:39,884 --> 00:33:40,625
which is

971
00:33:41,005 --> 00:33:42,464
an ESA mission incorporation

972
00:33:42,765 --> 00:33:44,464
with JAXA, the Japanese

973
00:33:44,970 --> 00:33:46,109
aerospace agency,

974
00:33:47,369 --> 00:33:49,390
and it's currently being built.

975
00:33:50,410 --> 00:33:53,609
Launch is foreseen in late twenty eight or

976
00:33:53,609 --> 00:33:54,910
early twenty nine,

977
00:33:56,490 --> 00:33:56,990
and

978
00:33:57,450 --> 00:33:57,950
Comet

979
00:33:59,015 --> 00:34:01,494
interceptor will be parked in the L two

980
00:34:01,494 --> 00:34:02,714
Lagrange point

981
00:34:03,174 --> 00:34:05,414
behind the Earth as seen from the sun,

982
00:34:05,414 --> 00:34:07,654
roughly a million and a half kilometers behind

983
00:34:07,654 --> 00:34:09,894
the Earth as seen from the sun, and

984
00:34:09,894 --> 00:34:11,434
they'll wait on its target.

985
00:34:12,869 --> 00:34:13,369
And,

986
00:34:13,909 --> 00:34:15,289
essentially, then where,

987
00:34:16,150 --> 00:34:18,469
when it's time to to to leave to

988
00:34:18,469 --> 00:34:20,869
to encounter the target, leave L two and

989
00:34:20,869 --> 00:34:22,949
be transferred to the target, which it will

990
00:34:22,949 --> 00:34:26,085
meet most likely at the point where the

991
00:34:26,324 --> 00:34:29,364
target comet causes a eclipse. Okay. What l

992
00:34:29,364 --> 00:34:32,565
s l s s Oh, sorry. LSST is

993
00:34:32,565 --> 00:34:33,304
a legacy

994
00:34:33,925 --> 00:34:36,184
survey in space and time,

995
00:34:37,284 --> 00:34:40,505
and it's essentially the the Vera Rubens telescope,

996
00:34:40,565 --> 00:34:43,090
a new eight meter survey telescope

997
00:34:44,590 --> 00:34:45,489
that's currently

998
00:34:46,269 --> 00:34:47,730
starting to operate

999
00:34:48,110 --> 00:34:49,250
in in Chile,

1000
00:34:49,550 --> 00:34:50,610
and it will

1001
00:34:50,989 --> 00:34:51,489
image

1002
00:34:52,269 --> 00:34:54,289
the sky visible from roughly

1003
00:34:54,590 --> 00:34:56,210
once every three days.

1004
00:34:57,425 --> 00:34:59,905
And the last I heard is actually that

1005
00:34:59,905 --> 00:35:01,364
the survey will

1006
00:35:02,625 --> 00:35:05,184
that the survey will start mid mid this

1007
00:35:05,184 --> 00:35:05,684
month.

1008
00:35:07,505 --> 00:35:09,824
I'll get an update actually today or tomorrow

1009
00:35:09,824 --> 00:35:11,585
on that, but the survey is now going

1010
00:35:11,585 --> 00:35:14,280
to to start very soon. Now the sparking

1011
00:35:14,280 --> 00:35:17,420
is done because for those comets are typically

1012
00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:19,640
detected only a couple of months or a

1013
00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:20,780
year before they

1014
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:23,579
before they before they perihelion. Now

1015
00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:27,260
comet interceptor relies that with LSST, this

1016
00:35:27,994 --> 00:35:31,114
time increases to several years, but even several

1017
00:35:31,114 --> 00:35:33,315
years is not enough to def to to

1018
00:35:33,315 --> 00:35:33,855
to define,

1019
00:35:34,954 --> 00:35:36,094
design, build,

1020
00:35:36,635 --> 00:35:39,375
and fly a space mission. Therefore, comet interceptor

1021
00:35:39,434 --> 00:35:41,630
is being built now and waits

1022
00:35:42,250 --> 00:35:44,349
in l two. And then with a typical

1023
00:35:44,409 --> 00:35:46,989
transfer time of one or two years,

1024
00:35:47,849 --> 00:35:50,809
it's feasible to fly by a reachable comet

1025
00:35:50,809 --> 00:35:51,710
if it's detected

1026
00:35:52,010 --> 00:35:53,630
on time by by LSSD.

1027
00:35:54,204 --> 00:35:57,984
You've got your spacecraft parked at Lagrange 0.2.

1028
00:35:58,444 --> 00:35:59,744
There's a comet coming.

1029
00:36:00,045 --> 00:36:00,944
If it was

1030
00:36:01,885 --> 00:36:03,264
three I Atlas,

1031
00:36:03,565 --> 00:36:06,385
would you have been able to use interceptor

1032
00:36:06,525 --> 00:36:07,019
on that?

1033
00:36:08,059 --> 00:36:09,039
No. It's,

1034
00:36:10,300 --> 00:36:13,019
it's it's would not have been reachable with

1035
00:36:13,019 --> 00:36:15,280
a fuel available on Comet Interceptor,

1036
00:36:16,219 --> 00:36:18,460
and it's still a little bit far out.

1037
00:36:18,460 --> 00:36:19,760
So the Comet Interceptor

1038
00:36:20,140 --> 00:36:20,640
spacecraft

1039
00:36:24,035 --> 00:36:26,454
is able to to encounter

1040
00:36:27,075 --> 00:36:29,235
targets, well, which can be reached with the

1041
00:36:29,235 --> 00:36:31,555
fuel and also has to be relatively close

1042
00:36:31,555 --> 00:36:34,914
to Earth's orbit, ideally between point nine and

1043
00:36:34,914 --> 00:36:36,615
one point two AU.

1044
00:36:36,929 --> 00:36:38,929
There is maybe a little bit of margin

1045
00:36:38,929 --> 00:36:39,589
of it,

1046
00:36:39,969 --> 00:36:42,449
but, see, I was already too far out

1047
00:36:42,449 --> 00:36:43,109
from that.

1048
00:36:43,969 --> 00:36:45,670
And the other aspect

1049
00:36:45,969 --> 00:36:46,469
is

1050
00:36:47,170 --> 00:36:48,230
comet interceptor

1051
00:36:48,530 --> 00:36:49,429
is designed

1052
00:36:50,144 --> 00:36:53,925
against flyby velocities of up to 70 kilometers

1053
00:36:54,224 --> 00:36:54,885
per second.

1054
00:36:57,105 --> 00:36:58,085
And ATLAS,

1055
00:36:58,385 --> 00:37:00,164
I don't know what's the hypothetical

1056
00:37:00,465 --> 00:37:03,344
velocity. Flyby velocity would have been as kind

1057
00:37:03,344 --> 00:37:05,445
of worst case in terms of

1058
00:37:06,079 --> 00:37:07,059
flyby velocity

1059
00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:08,179
as an

1060
00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:11,300
interstellar object with a very high eccentricity

1061
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:12,260
and

1062
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:15,840
on a nearly retrograde orbit. So most likely,

1063
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:17,840
also, the flyby velocity would have been too

1064
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:18,340
high.

1065
00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:21,875
Okay. But it so you're looking at comets

1066
00:37:21,934 --> 00:37:22,835
which are,

1067
00:37:23,375 --> 00:37:24,994
within our solar system,

1068
00:37:25,454 --> 00:37:28,175
born in our solar system. So Yes. And,

1069
00:37:28,494 --> 00:37:30,414
so have you got particular targets that you're

1070
00:37:30,414 --> 00:37:32,015
looking at? No. We do not. I mean,

1071
00:37:32,015 --> 00:37:33,954
the target still has to be detected.

1072
00:37:36,140 --> 00:37:36,880
In the

1073
00:37:37,500 --> 00:37:38,559
unlikely case

1074
00:37:38,940 --> 00:37:39,440
that

1075
00:37:40,140 --> 00:37:42,800
no comet will be found that can be

1076
00:37:42,860 --> 00:37:45,500
encountered in the up to six years in

1077
00:37:45,500 --> 00:37:47,680
space for comet interceptor,

1078
00:37:48,344 --> 00:37:50,684
We have a list of short period comets

1079
00:37:51,224 --> 00:37:52,605
as backup targets.

1080
00:37:53,144 --> 00:37:54,364
So for for

1081
00:37:55,065 --> 00:37:56,125
for each launch,

1082
00:37:56,505 --> 00:37:57,704
yeah, we we we have,

1083
00:37:58,184 --> 00:38:00,585
depending on the exact launch date, we have

1084
00:38:00,585 --> 00:38:02,125
two or three backup targets

1085
00:38:03,670 --> 00:38:05,510
that could be reached in case we do

1086
00:38:05,510 --> 00:38:07,769
not find a a long period, Comet.

1087
00:38:08,070 --> 00:38:10,890
Okay. Fair enough. And so when, when you

1088
00:38:11,110 --> 00:38:13,289
do get your target, you fly your spacecraft

1089
00:38:13,590 --> 00:38:14,250
to it.

1090
00:38:14,710 --> 00:38:15,769
What happens then?

1091
00:38:16,070 --> 00:38:16,570
Okay.

1092
00:38:18,315 --> 00:38:19,614
So comet interceptor,

1093
00:38:19,994 --> 00:38:21,295
actually, three spacecraft.

1094
00:38:22,074 --> 00:38:25,355
So the main comet interceptor spacecraft and two

1095
00:38:25,355 --> 00:38:28,394
small spacecraft that we call probes b one

1096
00:38:28,394 --> 00:38:29,454
and b two,

1097
00:38:29,859 --> 00:38:31,480
with probe b one contributed

1098
00:38:31,940 --> 00:38:32,679
by YAXA

1099
00:38:33,380 --> 00:38:35,159
and probe b two by ESA.

1100
00:38:36,820 --> 00:38:39,859
And one one to two days before the

1101
00:38:39,859 --> 00:38:41,880
flyby, the probes will separate

1102
00:38:43,964 --> 00:38:46,444
and approach the nucleus a bit closer than

1103
00:38:46,444 --> 00:38:47,424
the main spacecraft.

1104
00:38:48,764 --> 00:38:49,505
And then

1105
00:38:50,125 --> 00:38:52,684
the actual science mission out as a prime

1106
00:38:52,684 --> 00:38:55,484
science mission is is is essentially only a

1107
00:38:55,484 --> 00:38:58,239
few minutes when the spacecraft are close to

1108
00:38:58,239 --> 00:38:59,780
the close to the comet.

1109
00:39:02,239 --> 00:39:05,519
And space the main spacecraft will fly by

1110
00:39:05,519 --> 00:39:07,699
at a nominal distance of 1,000

1111
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:10,260
kilometers, which may be a little bit modified

1112
00:39:10,335 --> 00:39:11,714
based on comet activity.

1113
00:39:12,175 --> 00:39:14,815
And based on the flyby velocity, it may

1114
00:39:14,815 --> 00:39:15,954
get a bit closer.

1115
00:39:17,534 --> 00:39:18,755
And we'll essentially

1116
00:39:19,054 --> 00:39:20,994
collect all the data. It can

1117
00:39:21,614 --> 00:39:23,775
in the time of the closest approach and

1118
00:39:23,775 --> 00:39:26,360
afterwards use up to half a year for

1119
00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:27,660
the downlink of the data.

1120
00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:31,320
The small sats will go closer with a

1121
00:39:31,320 --> 00:39:32,380
nominal distance

1122
00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:33,180
of,

1123
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:36,360
400 kilometers for one of them and around

1124
00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:37,900
800 for the other.

1125
00:39:38,574 --> 00:39:40,494
We'll do the same. We'll take all the

1126
00:39:40,494 --> 00:39:42,894
data they can in the hours before closest

1127
00:39:42,894 --> 00:39:45,775
approach and during closest approach and send the

1128
00:39:45,775 --> 00:39:48,255
data back to the main spacecraft through an

1129
00:39:48,255 --> 00:39:49,635
inter satellite link.

1130
00:39:50,510 --> 00:39:52,829
And then everything will be downloaded from the

1131
00:39:52,829 --> 00:39:53,569
main spacecraft

1132
00:39:53,869 --> 00:39:56,589
to Earth. What does the having the three

1133
00:39:56,589 --> 00:39:58,130
different spacecraft bring?

1134
00:39:58,909 --> 00:40:00,210
One thing is,

1135
00:40:01,230 --> 00:40:03,489
that we get multipoint observations.

1136
00:40:03,789 --> 00:40:05,329
So we sample different

1137
00:40:07,045 --> 00:40:09,285
areas of the coma at the same time

1138
00:40:09,285 --> 00:40:11,445
with the three spacecraft, and we also get

1139
00:40:11,445 --> 00:40:13,625
some stereo view on the nucleus.

1140
00:40:14,644 --> 00:40:17,204
And the other aspect is with the small

1141
00:40:17,204 --> 00:40:17,704
satellites,

1142
00:40:18,244 --> 00:40:20,164
we are willing to take a little bit

1143
00:40:20,164 --> 00:40:21,059
more of a risk

1144
00:40:21,940 --> 00:40:24,260
and to get closer to the nucleus of

1145
00:40:24,260 --> 00:40:25,880
the comet. Bit more disposable.

1146
00:40:26,420 --> 00:40:28,599
Yeah. More disposable in a sense. Yeah.

1147
00:40:29,059 --> 00:40:30,519
Imagine that you could

1148
00:40:30,820 --> 00:40:31,320
use,

1149
00:40:32,579 --> 00:40:35,320
interceptor to look at three I Atlas.

1150
00:40:36,464 --> 00:40:36,964
What,

1151
00:40:37,744 --> 00:40:39,045
what would it what

1152
00:40:39,744 --> 00:40:42,144
extra information would it give us? Yes. One

1153
00:40:42,144 --> 00:40:45,664
thing is we would get high resolution. High

1154
00:40:45,664 --> 00:40:48,304
resolution, meaning a couple a couple of meters

1155
00:40:48,304 --> 00:40:49,045
per pixel

1156
00:40:49,505 --> 00:40:50,964
images of the nucleus.

1157
00:40:55,929 --> 00:40:59,070
We would also get a much more detailed

1158
00:40:59,210 --> 00:41:00,429
coma composition

1159
00:41:00,969 --> 00:41:04,170
mainly because comet interceptor is flying a mass

1160
00:41:04,170 --> 00:41:04,670
spectrometer

1161
00:41:05,050 --> 00:41:06,429
that's similar to receptor.

1162
00:41:07,184 --> 00:41:08,085
So to reset

1163
00:41:08,864 --> 00:41:11,425
up, can get many observations at the same

1164
00:41:11,425 --> 00:41:11,925
time.

1165
00:41:14,625 --> 00:41:16,724
Many molecules at the same time. Sorry.

1166
00:41:18,144 --> 00:41:18,644
And

1167
00:41:19,344 --> 00:41:22,305
we get some some the soft also infrared

1168
00:41:22,305 --> 00:41:23,590
spectra that show

1169
00:41:23,969 --> 00:41:26,849
the the variation of composition over the surface

1170
00:41:26,849 --> 00:41:29,730
that shows the thermal properties, some, yeah, some

1171
00:41:29,730 --> 00:41:31,670
physical properties of the surface.

1172
00:41:35,570 --> 00:41:36,070
And,

1173
00:41:38,594 --> 00:41:40,215
we we get a lot of information

1174
00:41:40,515 --> 00:41:43,094
also about the the plasma environment

1175
00:41:44,434 --> 00:41:46,594
and the and the outer commas who the

1176
00:41:46,594 --> 00:41:47,494
who the spacecraft

1177
00:41:47,875 --> 00:41:50,130
observing at at the same time between the

1178
00:41:50,130 --> 00:41:52,130
case of an interstellar object may not be

1179
00:41:52,130 --> 00:41:53,109
the highest priority.

1180
00:41:54,369 --> 00:41:55,889
Just talking about this, there's there's there's there's

1181
00:41:55,889 --> 00:41:57,829
there's been three interstellar objects.

1182
00:41:58,449 --> 00:42:00,389
I presumably, there have been

1183
00:42:00,769 --> 00:42:02,929
many more interstellar objects. And the reason we've

1184
00:42:02,929 --> 00:42:04,905
seen three is because we now have the

1185
00:42:05,304 --> 00:42:08,025
instrumentation, whatever it is, to to be able

1186
00:42:08,025 --> 00:42:10,105
to detect Indeed. There are many more of

1187
00:42:10,105 --> 00:42:11,324
them, and

1188
00:42:11,625 --> 00:42:12,844
we only detect,

1189
00:42:13,144 --> 00:42:15,065
let's say, the brighter ones and the ones

1190
00:42:15,065 --> 00:42:16,204
that come in close.

1191
00:42:17,599 --> 00:42:19,300
And, yeah, as I already indicate,

1192
00:42:19,599 --> 00:42:22,160
also, the reason that all three have been

1193
00:42:22,160 --> 00:42:22,660
detected

1194
00:42:23,039 --> 00:42:25,599
in the last ten years is simply because

1195
00:42:25,599 --> 00:42:26,260
of more

1196
00:42:27,119 --> 00:42:28,179
of more advanced

1197
00:42:28,559 --> 00:42:29,059
instrumentation.

1198
00:42:30,914 --> 00:42:31,894
And with LSST,

1199
00:42:32,195 --> 00:42:34,515
we get we hope to get get more.

1200
00:42:34,515 --> 00:42:35,655
Maybe, I don't know,

1201
00:42:35,954 --> 00:42:38,434
maybe 10 or 100 more. It's really very

1202
00:42:38,434 --> 00:42:40,755
difficult to predict on the small statistics and

1203
00:42:40,755 --> 00:42:42,994
objects we are having. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

1204
00:42:42,994 --> 00:42:44,614
I was gonna ask you a silly question.

1205
00:42:44,750 --> 00:42:46,909
But, like, do you do you think that

1206
00:42:46,909 --> 00:42:48,369
Oumuamua, for example,

1207
00:42:48,670 --> 00:42:50,210
is is actually common,

1208
00:42:50,750 --> 00:42:52,750
relatively common, or do you think that was

1209
00:42:52,750 --> 00:42:54,349
really a a one off? I mean, we

1210
00:42:54,349 --> 00:42:55,789
don't know right now. Is that what? Sorry.

1211
00:42:55,789 --> 00:42:57,045
Oumuamua. Yeah.

1212
00:42:57,605 --> 00:42:59,924
Was it I don't know. No. I mean,

1213
00:42:59,924 --> 00:43:02,184
with with I mean, it was its properties

1214
00:43:02,324 --> 00:43:03,144
were unexpected.

1215
00:43:04,644 --> 00:43:07,045
And, of course, based on the discovery of

1216
00:43:07,045 --> 00:43:07,944
one object

1217
00:43:08,724 --> 00:43:11,045
and the total of three, it's very hard

1218
00:43:11,045 --> 00:43:12,505
to say if it's. So

1219
00:43:13,099 --> 00:43:15,119
so my guess is as good as yours.

1220
00:43:15,420 --> 00:43:17,920
It's it sounds like to me

1221
00:43:18,219 --> 00:43:20,079
that this is going to become,

1222
00:43:21,019 --> 00:43:23,340
the it's it's a very exciting area of

1223
00:43:23,340 --> 00:43:25,500
science. If you're interested in in space, which

1224
00:43:25,500 --> 00:43:27,844
I certainly am, then this is a very

1225
00:43:27,844 --> 00:43:29,704
interesting area of science. You know? Interstellar,

1226
00:43:31,605 --> 00:43:34,405
objects coming through our solar system, comets within

1227
00:43:34,405 --> 00:43:36,724
our solar system, flying spacecraft to comets within

1228
00:43:36,724 --> 00:43:38,964
our solar system. It sounds like it's an

1229
00:43:38,964 --> 00:43:40,469
area of science which is

1230
00:43:41,510 --> 00:43:43,349
developing more and more. If we've only found

1231
00:43:43,349 --> 00:43:44,969
three so far, it's a bit like exoplanets.

1232
00:43:45,109 --> 00:43:46,389
Right? There was a time when we thought

1233
00:43:46,389 --> 00:43:48,150
they were going to be exoplanets, and now

1234
00:43:48,150 --> 00:43:50,409
there's thousands and thousands that we know of.

1235
00:43:50,630 --> 00:43:52,969
Yeah. In a sense, it's maybe like exoplanets

1236
00:43:53,190 --> 00:43:54,409
since the nineteen nineties.

1237
00:43:55,164 --> 00:43:55,664
Obviously,

1238
00:43:55,964 --> 00:43:57,724
ESA had the Rosetta mission that go into

1239
00:43:57,724 --> 00:43:59,025
a comet ten years ago.

1240
00:43:59,804 --> 00:44:02,444
Why do we need comet interceptor as well

1241
00:44:02,444 --> 00:44:04,525
on top of that? The other thing is

1242
00:44:04,525 --> 00:44:06,960
we had comet 67 p, which is a

1243
00:44:07,039 --> 00:44:09,760
small period comet that orbits the sun every

1244
00:44:09,760 --> 00:44:10,659
six years.

1245
00:44:13,679 --> 00:44:15,460
And did and and and

1246
00:44:15,839 --> 00:44:18,000
and, yeah, observed it and its evolution in

1247
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:20,505
very much detail. But the interesting thing is

1248
00:44:20,585 --> 00:44:23,065
for some of the large structures like the

1249
00:44:23,065 --> 00:44:24,684
the supposed layers,

1250
00:44:25,545 --> 00:44:26,284
the two

1251
00:44:26,824 --> 00:44:28,984
there's a two bodies, the the kind of

1252
00:44:28,984 --> 00:44:31,644
by contact binary structures, the big,

1253
00:44:34,550 --> 00:44:36,650
the the big holes that we have seen.

1254
00:44:38,469 --> 00:44:40,489
There are still a discussion ongoing

1255
00:44:40,949 --> 00:44:43,190
for many of those things to which extent

1256
00:44:43,190 --> 00:44:44,090
they are primordial.

1257
00:44:44,630 --> 00:44:47,349
They are remnants of the formation and to

1258
00:44:47,349 --> 00:44:48,170
which extent

1259
00:44:48,785 --> 00:44:50,164
they have been created

1260
00:44:50,465 --> 00:44:52,704
by the many orbits around the sun and

1261
00:44:52,704 --> 00:44:54,164
the many warming up,

1262
00:44:55,344 --> 00:44:55,844
periods

1263
00:44:56,224 --> 00:44:57,125
in the sun.

1264
00:44:57,905 --> 00:44:59,985
And they are a mission that gets at

1265
00:44:59,985 --> 00:45:02,989
least those large structures also on a on

1266
00:45:02,989 --> 00:45:03,489
a

1267
00:45:04,110 --> 00:45:06,110
on a new comet that comes into the

1268
00:45:06,110 --> 00:45:08,690
inner solar system for the very first time

1269
00:45:09,150 --> 00:45:10,449
will help to distinguish

1270
00:45:11,070 --> 00:45:13,329
which of those structures have been,

1271
00:45:14,925 --> 00:45:16,844
yeah, are there as well. And if they're

1272
00:45:16,844 --> 00:45:18,364
on the new comet as well, they are

1273
00:45:18,364 --> 00:45:19,265
indeed primordial.

1274
00:45:19,565 --> 00:45:20,945
If they are not there,

1275
00:45:21,325 --> 00:45:22,224
they may be

1276
00:45:23,164 --> 00:45:24,465
they may be a consequence

1277
00:45:24,844 --> 00:45:27,325
of the of the evolution due to the

1278
00:45:27,325 --> 00:45:29,565
formations for the inner solar system of a

1279
00:45:29,565 --> 00:45:31,039
comet like 67

1280
00:45:31,420 --> 00:45:33,420
b. So in those sense, those missions are

1281
00:45:33,420 --> 00:45:37,180
complementary, and comet interceptor may also help with

1282
00:45:37,180 --> 00:45:39,760
an with the analysis or reanalysis

1283
00:45:40,300 --> 00:45:42,059
of the of the of the results from

1284
00:45:42,059 --> 00:45:42,559
Rosetta.

1285
00:45:42,905 --> 00:45:44,344
Now I did mention at the start of

1286
00:45:44,344 --> 00:45:46,105
this podcast, and you'll no doubt be aware,

1287
00:45:46,105 --> 00:45:48,344
there is speculation in the press that maybe

1288
00:45:48,344 --> 00:45:50,925
three I Atlas is some sort of alien

1289
00:45:51,065 --> 00:45:53,484
spacecraft or something to do with alien technology,

1290
00:45:53,784 --> 00:45:55,324
which has been sent to

1291
00:45:55,679 --> 00:45:58,000
our solar system. Now we don't want to

1292
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:00,079
get into conspiracy theories here on the Physics

1293
00:46:00,079 --> 00:46:02,719
World Stories podcast. Of course, we're far more

1294
00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:05,359
interested in the universe as it actually is.

1295
00:46:05,359 --> 00:46:07,679
But from a science communication point of view,

1296
00:46:07,679 --> 00:46:09,280
it's something that I wanted to talk to

1297
00:46:09,280 --> 00:46:12,635
Tracy Becker about. Because doctor Tracy Becker was

1298
00:46:12,635 --> 00:46:14,635
the winner of the Carl Sagan Award for

1299
00:46:14,635 --> 00:46:17,594
the Public Appreciation of Science in 2023.

1300
00:46:17,594 --> 00:46:20,074
And I wondered what her take was on

1301
00:46:20,074 --> 00:46:22,655
this story of fascinating story of an interstellar

1302
00:46:22,715 --> 00:46:25,599
comet being mixed up in the media, in

1303
00:46:25,599 --> 00:46:28,639
some cases inspired by comments from scientists who,

1304
00:46:28,639 --> 00:46:31,780
for whatever reason, seem to say that anything

1305
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:33,780
that is slightly peculiar

1306
00:46:34,159 --> 00:46:35,940
might well be alien technology.

1307
00:46:37,134 --> 00:46:38,574
My feelings can be mixed. I mean, I

1308
00:46:38,574 --> 00:46:40,815
think that anything that gets people excited and

1309
00:46:40,815 --> 00:46:43,634
talking about space and focused on space and

1310
00:46:43,775 --> 00:46:46,014
understanding that there's all these really cool phenomena

1311
00:46:46,014 --> 00:46:48,255
happening all the time around us and and

1312
00:46:48,255 --> 00:46:49,650
focusing on the science,

1313
00:46:50,609 --> 00:46:53,329
that's all exciting. So I'm, in some ways,

1314
00:46:53,329 --> 00:46:55,809
glad to have so much interest generated in

1315
00:46:55,809 --> 00:46:57,329
this object. We don't get a lot of

1316
00:46:57,329 --> 00:47:00,210
interest generally just from a an average comet

1317
00:47:00,210 --> 00:47:01,029
passing by.

1318
00:47:01,650 --> 00:47:03,924
This object, of course, is spectacular in the

1319
00:47:03,924 --> 00:47:05,364
sense that it's only the third time we've

1320
00:47:05,364 --> 00:47:08,164
ever known about an interstellar visitor. Right? This

1321
00:47:08,164 --> 00:47:10,164
is an object that came from outside of

1322
00:47:10,164 --> 00:47:11,844
our solar system, and it's in our solar

1323
00:47:11,844 --> 00:47:13,704
system. And so it rightfully deserves

1324
00:47:14,005 --> 00:47:15,284
a lot of talk and a lot of

1325
00:47:15,284 --> 00:47:17,599
press. And so from that perspective, it's good

1326
00:47:17,599 --> 00:47:18,180
to see,

1327
00:47:20,160 --> 00:47:22,400
so much interest in it. What I hope

1328
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:24,099
that the public does is

1329
00:47:24,480 --> 00:47:26,800
take that initial, you know, a little bit

1330
00:47:26,800 --> 00:47:28,844
of bait, I guess, in terms of

1331
00:47:29,885 --> 00:47:31,344
of what is this thing

1332
00:47:31,804 --> 00:47:33,244
and and then go look at it more

1333
00:47:33,244 --> 00:47:35,344
carefully and see, wow. This is really cool

1334
00:47:35,565 --> 00:47:36,304
even though

1335
00:47:36,844 --> 00:47:38,844
the bait was this kind of alien thing

1336
00:47:38,844 --> 00:47:40,465
that people like to throw out there.

1337
00:47:41,244 --> 00:47:42,925
But the the actual science behind it is

1338
00:47:42,925 --> 00:47:45,000
interesting. The part that I waiver on a

1339
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:46,460
little bit is that, you know,

1340
00:47:47,160 --> 00:47:49,160
the public we want the public to trust

1341
00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:49,660
scientists.

1342
00:47:50,039 --> 00:47:52,599
There's already a lot of, erosion of trust

1343
00:47:52,599 --> 00:47:53,340
in scientists

1344
00:47:53,719 --> 00:47:55,019
and science in general

1345
00:47:55,400 --> 00:47:57,260
in multiple fields. And so

1346
00:47:59,474 --> 00:48:01,554
experts kind of throw out claims that are

1347
00:48:01,554 --> 00:48:02,054
not

1348
00:48:02,835 --> 00:48:03,335
backed

1349
00:48:03,635 --> 00:48:05,494
by empirical evidence,

1350
00:48:06,914 --> 00:48:09,635
can further tarnish and further hurt sort of

1351
00:48:09,635 --> 00:48:11,494
that goal of making sure we're communicating,

1352
00:48:12,909 --> 00:48:15,329
good science and making sure that that people

1353
00:48:15,630 --> 00:48:17,949
understand the science and trust the science and

1354
00:48:17,949 --> 00:48:18,849
trust the scientists.

1355
00:48:19,150 --> 00:48:20,590
I hope that people use it as a

1356
00:48:20,590 --> 00:48:22,670
launching point of saying, what? Aliens? Oh, no.

1357
00:48:22,670 --> 00:48:24,675
That's it's not aliens, but this is cool.

1358
00:48:24,675 --> 00:48:26,594
And not the other way, which could be,

1359
00:48:26,594 --> 00:48:27,574
oh, it's aliens.

1360
00:48:28,275 --> 00:48:30,035
Oh, wait. No. All these other scientists are

1361
00:48:30,035 --> 00:48:32,195
saying no. I guess science never can con

1362
00:48:32,275 --> 00:48:34,675
can come to a conclusion on anything, and

1363
00:48:34,675 --> 00:48:35,954
now I don't believe any of it. You

1364
00:48:35,954 --> 00:48:37,094
know? That's a harmful,

1365
00:48:37,635 --> 00:48:38,789
response to it. So,

1366
00:48:39,510 --> 00:48:40,710
yeah, I think a mix.

1367
00:48:41,349 --> 00:48:44,469
But, hopefully, again, people just appreciate how how

1368
00:48:44,469 --> 00:48:46,230
cool this is. And I think the images

1369
00:48:46,230 --> 00:48:46,550
that,

1370
00:48:47,030 --> 00:48:49,210
Hubble and other telescopes have been producing

1371
00:48:49,590 --> 00:48:51,590
and the results that hopefully we'll be publishing

1372
00:48:51,590 --> 00:48:53,449
with Europa UBS and other spacecraft

1373
00:48:53,885 --> 00:48:55,344
will keep that interest alive,

1374
00:48:55,804 --> 00:48:57,244
and just show how cool it is to

1375
00:48:57,244 --> 00:48:59,664
be able to have this fleet of spacecraft

1376
00:48:59,885 --> 00:49:02,125
all be able to turn and point at

1377
00:49:02,125 --> 00:49:03,105
this one really

1378
00:49:03,405 --> 00:49:03,905
special,

1379
00:49:04,605 --> 00:49:07,500
interstellar object that serendipitously came through our solar

1380
00:49:07,500 --> 00:49:09,340
system at the right time. Stay tuned for

1381
00:49:09,340 --> 00:49:11,900
whatever for the results that we do publish

1382
00:49:11,900 --> 00:49:14,380
with this instrument and with the various other

1383
00:49:14,380 --> 00:49:15,519
spacecraft and,

1384
00:49:16,140 --> 00:49:18,619
telescope ground based telescope observations that are happening

1385
00:49:18,619 --> 00:49:20,934
because I think we're just scratching the surface.

1386
00:49:20,934 --> 00:49:22,695
We just kind of are taking images right

1387
00:49:22,695 --> 00:49:24,695
now and and getting some of that initial

1388
00:49:24,695 --> 00:49:26,614
data out there, but this is our first

1389
00:49:26,614 --> 00:49:28,474
real opportunity to understand

1390
00:49:29,175 --> 00:49:30,635
and kind of put into

1391
00:49:31,655 --> 00:49:33,494
context what our solar system is. You know?

1392
00:49:33,494 --> 00:49:35,170
When we look at we can look at

1393
00:49:35,170 --> 00:49:36,130
planets now.

1394
00:49:36,769 --> 00:49:38,769
We can see these exoplanets around other stars,

1395
00:49:38,769 --> 00:49:39,590
which is fantastic.

1396
00:49:39,890 --> 00:49:41,969
But it's hard to get any compositional information

1397
00:49:41,969 --> 00:49:43,969
about those, and and even then, it's some

1398
00:49:43,969 --> 00:49:45,590
of the usually the biggest ones.

1399
00:49:46,614 --> 00:49:48,614
It's hard to get information about comets in

1400
00:49:48,614 --> 00:49:50,454
our own solar system that don't come close

1401
00:49:50,454 --> 00:49:51,275
to the Earth,

1402
00:49:51,815 --> 00:49:53,914
or come close to the sun, let alone

1403
00:49:53,974 --> 00:49:56,295
comets from other solar systems. So this is

1404
00:49:56,295 --> 00:49:58,875
really one of those extremely rare opportunities

1405
00:49:59,760 --> 00:50:02,480
to potentially understand sort of that reservoir of

1406
00:50:02,480 --> 00:50:03,860
materials that form

1407
00:50:04,640 --> 00:50:05,140
the

1408
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:08,739
the basic building blocks of another solar system

1409
00:50:08,880 --> 00:50:10,880
and ask those questions. You know? How unique

1410
00:50:10,880 --> 00:50:13,199
is our solar system, or how common is

1411
00:50:13,199 --> 00:50:14,905
it? And are we the weird ones? Is

1412
00:50:14,905 --> 00:50:16,424
that solar system the weird one? We won't

1413
00:50:16,424 --> 00:50:17,944
know that until we start getting more and

1414
00:50:17,944 --> 00:50:19,784
more of these objects. And I think what's

1415
00:50:19,784 --> 00:50:21,464
really exciting is that we do have these

1416
00:50:21,464 --> 00:50:23,784
powerful telescopes like Vera Rubin and others coming

1417
00:50:23,784 --> 00:50:26,125
online where we're gonna be able to see

1418
00:50:26,664 --> 00:50:29,230
and detect some of these objects way earlier

1419
00:50:29,230 --> 00:50:30,670
out. You know, this is the third one

1420
00:50:30,670 --> 00:50:32,349
we've known about, but it's certainly not the

1421
00:50:32,349 --> 00:50:33,869
third one that's ever come through our solar

1422
00:50:33,869 --> 00:50:34,369
system.

1423
00:50:34,829 --> 00:50:36,989
But having the opportunity to detect them in

1424
00:50:36,989 --> 00:50:37,489
advance

1425
00:50:37,869 --> 00:50:40,055
and seeing the results of and the the

1426
00:50:40,055 --> 00:50:42,695
power of having gotten these observations and working

1427
00:50:42,695 --> 00:50:44,474
together across all these missions,

1428
00:50:45,255 --> 00:50:47,575
and across the ground based telescope network to

1429
00:50:47,575 --> 00:50:48,394
study it,

1430
00:50:49,015 --> 00:50:50,454
I think that we're gonna see this more

1431
00:50:50,454 --> 00:50:52,630
and more and more, and that's something exciting.

1432
00:50:52,630 --> 00:50:54,250
We're on the precipice of understanding

1433
00:50:54,710 --> 00:50:56,469
other solar systems in a way that we

1434
00:50:56,469 --> 00:50:58,889
weren't really expecting to do. Right? We're trying

1435
00:50:59,190 --> 00:51:01,349
to understand you know, build a bigger telescope

1436
00:51:01,349 --> 00:51:02,329
so that we can,

1437
00:51:03,510 --> 00:51:05,590
see further further and further out. But this

1438
00:51:05,590 --> 00:51:07,349
is an opportunity to make sure we're also

1439
00:51:07,349 --> 00:51:07,724
ready

1440
00:51:08,285 --> 00:51:10,125
to see the things that come come into

1441
00:51:10,125 --> 00:51:12,045
our backyard and actually get to play with

1442
00:51:12,045 --> 00:51:12,785
a little bit.

1443
00:51:13,244 --> 00:51:15,085
I'd like to thank Tracy and Michelle for

1444
00:51:15,085 --> 00:51:16,605
talking to me for this episode of the

1445
00:51:16,605 --> 00:51:20,125
Physics World Stories podcast. Don't forget that physicsworld.com

1446
00:51:20,125 --> 00:51:22,065
is an excellent resource for everything

1447
00:51:22,550 --> 00:51:24,650
to sate your desire for the latest

1448
00:51:24,949 --> 00:51:25,690
and greatest

1449
00:51:26,070 --> 00:51:29,190
of astronomy and space news. I hope 2026

1450
00:51:29,190 --> 00:51:30,710
has been treating you well so far, and

1451
00:51:30,710 --> 00:51:32,710
we'll be back next month with something else

1452
00:51:32,710 --> 00:51:34,710
from this wonderful world of physics. And thank

1453
00:51:34,710 --> 00:51:36,329
you very much for listening.