Giovedì 16 giugno alle ore 15:00, la Dr. Laura Inno dell’Università Parthenope di Napoli terrà il web-seminar dal titolo: TThe Vera C. Rubin LSST role in support of Comet Interceptor, the ESA F-class mission to an ancient word.

Abstract

Comet Interceptor, the first ESA F-class mission, selected in June 2019 and to be launched in 2029, sharing the vector with Ariel, will be a first in many things: 1) it will be the first space probe to perform a close flyby of a dynamically new comet (DNC) at its first parhelion passage, or possibly an interstellar comet; 2) it will be launched before its target is even known and therefore strongly rely on ground-based observations; 3) it will comprise of three spacecraft, which will add multi-dimensionality to the information gathered by the different instruments onboard.
Long period or dynamically new comets coming from the Oort cloud are the less evolved objects that populate the Solar System and therefore they enclose information on the primordial composition of the solar protoplanetary disk. But because they can only be discovered when entering the inner Solar System, they are difficult to target, not leaving much time ahead to planning. Indeed, Comet Interceptor will be parked at the stable Lagrange point L2 for about 2 years, waiting for the discovery of a suitable target, which will be intercepted by the spacecraft close to the ecliptic plane. Such a challenging strategy is feasible only thanks to a solid belief that many potential targets will be discovered in the meantime by the Vera C. Rubin LSST.
In this talk, I will present the Comet Interceptor mission – of which I am co-Investigator- and explain why LSST is indeed the best equipped survey for early detection of its potential target. In particular, I will describe the impact of LSST survey on Solar System science and the projects that I am currently leading within the LSST collaboration in order to prepare for Comet Interceptor.