Description
The formation and migration history of the Solar System is encoded in remnant disc material. Comets are small, kilometre-sized planetesimals and as such are best characterised in situ. Only short period comets have thus far been studied by space missions - by nature, these comets have evolved substantially throughout repeated perihelion passages in the inner Solar System, where temperatures are sufficient to deplete their volatiles and erode their surfaces. It is challenging to reconcile the properties of the original disc material from such thermally processed objects.
The Comet Interceptor (CI) mission will be the first to encounter a comet making its first passage into the inner Solar System. As such objects are typically discovered ~years before perihelion, CI will wait in orbit until a suitable target has been identified. The upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time will survey the entire sky with a limiting magnitude of ~24, discovering thousands of new comets. Our priority before the survey begins is to determine the likelihood of identifying a mission target during CI’s operational window with sufficient lead time for mission planning purposes. We will present preliminary findings using the ‘Sorcha’ simulation package combined with newly-developed empirical long period comet brightening models to simulate expected detections with LSST.
