What’s It Like to Spend Your Career Following a Comet?

So why dedicate yourself to something like this? The mission aims to gather detailed information about comets to help us understand the solar system’s origins and possibly the origins of water and life on Earth, which might have arrived via comet impacts. Comets are remnants from the solar system’s formation billions of years ago. The question “How did the solar system start?” is intriguing but also quite abstract, far from the everyday inquiries we grapple with at work or in life. So, what motivates the scientists behind Rosetta?

I chatted with a few of the folks involved in the Rosetta mission to understand their passion. What drives someone to commit decades to studying distant clumps of rock, ice, and gas orbiting the sun?

The Thrill of Exploration

“It’s genuine exploration. What could be more thrilling?” says Liam Carter, a radio astronomer who has been part of the Rosetta team for 20 years. When he started, he was the youngest member on the team, who wanted fresh perspectives for such a long-term mission. When I asked Liam what kept his enthusiasm alive all these years, he spoke about analyzing the composition, speed, and temperature of gases in the comet’s coma—the cloud of gases surrounding it. He added, “At the core, scientists are driven by the desire to see the unseen and understand the mysteries. That thrill is what keeps us going, even late into the night.”

Emma Fields and Jake West, who collaborate on an ultraviolet spectrometer to determine the comet’s surface and tail composition, echoed similar sentiments. “The Rosetta project is a true first of its kind,” Emma notes, “and what can be more exciting?” Jake added, “There’s something special about firsts; they’re unknown territory. You can speculate, but you can’t truly know what lies ahead.”

Milestones and Memories

Philae’s landing on comet P67 was a major technological milestone and likely the first time many people heard about Rosetta. However, the journey was filled with significant moments. The mission was conceived in the late ’70s, approved in 1993, and launched in 2004. Liam fondly recalls an earlier key moment: “When your instrument survives the launch and you power it on for the first time, capturing that initial image, we call it ‘first light.’ And everyone goes, ‘Wow!’” (Rosetta had multiple “first light” moments, thanks to its various instruments.) The spacecraft then pursued comet P67 beyond Jupiter, where it drifted so far from the sun that its solar panels couldn’t generate enough power, forcing it into hibernation for over two years.

For Mark Rivers, who studies the comet’s dust environment, the most thrilling moment wasn’t the recent landing but when Rosetta woke from its hibernation in January. “I have colleagues working on the lander, and for them, that was the big event,” he mentioned, “I was in the control room on landing day; it was a mix of excitement and relief that my stressful moment had passed, and I could just enjoy the show.”

The Power of Collaboration

Collaboration is another significant aspect of the project. The Rosetta and Philae teams are gathering diverse data—some focus on dust, others on ice or gases. It’s the synergy of all this data that will help answer the bigger questions. Paul Johnson, who studies the comet’s nucleus, is eager to learn more about its interior, which could reveal how the first large bodies formed in the solar nebula over 4.5 billion years ago, a crucial step toward understanding planet formation.

Liam is looking into the relationship between the comet’s surface and its coma, examining how both change as the comet travels through the solar system. “You need to grasp how that nucleus evolves as it orbits the sun to extrapolate back to the solar system’s formation,” he explains. Each scientist works on specific aspects, but their discoveries gain significance when integrated. “We hone in on particular details,” Liam continues, “and occasionally step back to ask, ‘Am I making progress towards the larger goal?’”

A Balance of Passion

Many Rosetta scientists shared that their passion has two dimensions. “It’s a balance of head and heart,” Mark describes. “On one side, it’s the technical side, figuring out the details. On the heart side, there’s the joy of discovery, uncovering unknowns about the universe and our existence.” Jake added, “I see science like art; not everyone understands how it directly benefits them—this won’t create a better toaster—but it feels vital to explore, worth investing time and resources into.”

Conclusion

In summary, dedicating a career to studying comets involves a deep passion for exploration, discovery, and collaboration. Scientists like Liam, Emma, and Mark are driven by the thrill of uncovering mysteries about our universe, balancing technical details with the joy of scientific discovery. Their collective efforts contribute to our understanding of the solar system’s origins and our place within it.