Comet Interceptor

A Lego comet interceptor spacecraft held up in front of a blurry computer screen showing a zoom call.

Remote attending a @cometinterceptor.bsky.social CoCa team meeting, and finding my Lego model to be very useful for orientating myself around the spacecraft!

Excellent, I'll have to tell my intern! He's been doing great work on #comet ☄️ orbits perturbed by non-gravitational forces from their outgassing. We have already presented results to the @cometinterceptor.bsky.social team, and hopefully we will write a #PlanetaryScience paper on the subject!

Science In Action - Stephen Hawking gets it right again - BBC Sounds LIGO witnesses two black holes merge just how Hawking predicted.

Catch Colin Snodgrass talking ☄️ Comet Interceptor 🚀 on the BBC's Science In Action as well as @megschwamb.bsky.social on how important LSST will be for making small body discoveries: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... (from 8:30 minutes onwards!)

Hear from mission scientist Colin Snodgrass in his interview with @earthskyscience.bsky.social talking all things Comet Interceptor 🚀☄️

VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II. From quiescence to glow: Dramatic rise of Ni I emission and incipient CN outgassing at large heliocentric distances We report VLT spectroscopy of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1) from $r_{\rm h}\!\simeq\!4.4$ to $2.85$ au using X-shooter (300-550 nm, $R\!\simeq\!3000$) and UVES (optical, $R\!\simeq\!35k-...

Today on interstellar comet ☄️ 3I/ATLAS, this time from our team with ESO's VLT: the coma shows rich atomic nickel! This entirely natural metal emission from grains was only recently (last 4 yrs) identified in Solar System comets, was in 2I/Borisov, & now in 3I. 🔭🧪
Rahatgaonkar et al, ApJL submitted

Catching Comets: Rosita Kokotanekova’s Vision for Planetary Defence and Discovery | International Space Science Institute Listen to her engaging TEDxVitosha presentation, Dr. Rosita Kokotanekova, Planetary Science Discipline Scientist at ISSI.

Catching Comets for Planetary Defence! 🛡️✨

In her #TEDx talk, ISSI Discipline Scientist @kokotanekova.bsky.social is shining a brilliant light on one of the most daring missions in planetary science: ESA’s Comet Interceptor.
☄️
www.issibern.ch/catching-com...

@esa.int @cometinterceptor.bsky.social 🔭

Interstellar Object Comet 3I/ATLAS as seen by NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory! ☄️ Say hello to Comet 3I/ATLAS as seen by NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory! Comet 3I/ATLAS is just the third interstellar object ever spotted in our Solar System. Rubin Observatory didn’t discover it, but…

☄️ Say hello to Comet 3I/ATLAS, just the third interstellar object ever seen in our Solar System!

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory didn’t discover the comet, but even during testing, it caught a glimpse. Imagine what we'll find once full science operations begin later this year! 🔭🧪

🚀🚀 Could I have made it to interstellar object 3I/ATLAS? Find out in our latest research note! 🚀🚀

Analysis of Trajectories to 3I/ATLAS with a Comet Interceptor-like Spacecraft
doi.org/10.3847/2515...
via @ioppublishing.bsky.social

Check out Rosita Kokotanekova’s TEDx talk all about ME ☄️

It’s me 😎😎

Comet Interceptor is now on Bluesky!! ☄️🚀🛰️