The unmanned probe will lie in wait for comets from outside the solar system to enter ESA/HUBBLEA British team of space scientists are set to go where nobody has been before — by intercepting a pristine piece of the early solar system. The €150 million Comet Interceptor mission will send a spacecraft more than a million miles from Earth in a journey likely to take several weeks. The unmanned probe will then lie in wait, possibly for years, until a suitable target is spotted by astronomers back on the ground. They will be looking for an object that has never before entered the inner regions of the Solar System. This will probably be a comet from the system’s furthest reaches, untouched by the warmth of our sun and, it is hoped, carrying secrets of how our world came to be.

Source: The Times June 20, 2019 15:56 UTC