Estonia builds a camera to hunt an ancient comet
A camera built in southern Estonia will fly on the European Space Agency’s Comet Interceptor mission, which aims to photograph an ancient comet from the outer reaches of the Solar System.
Estonia has completed its first camera built for a deep-space mission, marking a milestone for the country’s growing space industry.
The optical periscopic imager for comets, known as OPIC, was developed over eight years at the University of Tartu’s Tartu Observatory. It will now be handed over to the European Space Agency and installed on one of the probes of ESA’s Comet Interceptor mission.
The mission is designed to study a pristine comet entering the inner Solar System from the distant Öpik-Oort Cloud – a region believed to contain icy bodies preserved since the formation of the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago.
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5/26/2026 4:04:46 PM