In her engaging TEDxVitosha presentation, Dr. Rosita Kokotanekova, Planetary Science Discipline Scientist at ISSI, poses a compelling question: Could we catch a comet before it hits Earth? She frames this not as science fiction, but as a bold, plausible scientific mission with transformative potential.
Comets are objects from the early Solar System made of a mixture of dust and ices. When heated by the Sun, the ices outgass, lifting dust (which forms the visible coma and tail) whilst also pushing on the comet nucleus in the opposite direction, changing its rotation and orbit.
The #547 ISSI Team gathered experts in cometary observations, trajectories, and thermophysical modelling to analyse comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s outgassing activity in order to improve our understanding of these ancient objects.
