The European Space Agency's (ESA) "Euclid" space telescope (Euclid) detected a previously unknown comet for the first time in images obtained between September 16 and 24, 2026. The ESA reported this, UNN writes.
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This discovery, the agency notes, is remarkable for a mission designed to obtain deep, stable images of distant galaxies rather than track fast-moving Solar System objects such as comets.
Moreover, the rapid identification and confirmation of the results prove that "Euclid" can detect new comets when they are still far from the Sun, potentially providing a suitable target for ESA's future Comet Interceptor mission.
Mikko Pentinen of the University of Helsinki, together with the Solar System Objects Science Working Group of the Euclid Consortium, made the first discovery using software developed by Mikko to detect moving objects while observing small Solar System objects in "Euclid" images.
"I was thrilled to see my software flag a 'streak' smeared across several images—a result of the object's rapid motion. By predicting its position, I was able to identify it in other images, finding it in five sets of images in total. Further examination showed that it was surrounded by a diffuse cloud, indicating an active object such as a comet emitting dust and gas," the researcher said.
The comet is located approximately 1.3 billion kilometers from Earth, equivalent to a distance from the Sun roughly between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. However, it does not lie in the same horizontal plane as the planets and is currently "oriented vertically" relative to the Sun, moving in an arc above the Solar System along an orbit whose full revolution will take thousands of years.