Comets

In a pair of space missions planned for the early part of the twenty-first century, space probes will rendezvous with a pair of short-period comets, hopefully to help scientists reach a better understanding of the physics of comets. NASA's Stardust mission, launched in 1999, is on its way to capture dust from the tail of Comet Wild (pronounced "vilt") 2 in 2004, returning the samples to Earth in 2006 for analysis. In February 2003, the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission—originally scheduled to rendezvous with Comet Wirtanen on its trip around the Sun—was postponed due to launch failures suffered by Europe's Ariane 5 rocket. In March 2003, ESA scientists retasked the Rosetta mission spacecraft to rendezvous with 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. With a launch planned as early as January 2004, Rosetta will orbit the comet and send a probe to the surface. An early 2004 launch date will permit a rendezvous in 2014. The larger size of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko—and thus a stronger gravitational field—poses some problems for the lander that will require recalculation of the landing impact stress on the lander legs.

At present, however, despite spaceships probing the outer limits of our solar system; gigantic telescopes in deserts, atop mountains, and floating in space; and satellites designed specifically to capture meteor dust hurtling through Earth's atmosphere from interstellar space, significant questions about the origin, nature, and fate of comets remains unsolved.