The ESA's Euclid Telescope Discovered a New Comet Completely by Accident

"Arthur T Knackerbracket" writes:

It was identified in Euclid telescope imagery using software designed to detect moving objects:

Approximately 40 to 70 new comets are discovered every year, most of which are found by astronomers actively looking for comets or at least new celestial bodies in general. But at least one comet discovered in 2026 doesn't have that distinction. It was discovered entirely by accident by a telescope that was not actively looking for comets.

Say hello to C/2026 S1 (Euclid), a brand new comet that was just discovered by the European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope. The comet is located about 1.3 billion kilometers away from Earth, which is roughly the distance between the sun and the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. It was discovered by Mikko Pontinen of the University of Helsinki, together with the Solar System Objects Science Working Group, who were using the Euclid telescope at the time of discovery.

What makes this one weird, among the thousands of other comets humans have named, is how they found it. The group was intentionally pointing the telescope away from the elliptical plane, a band in the sky where the solar system's planets, most of its asteroids and a significant number of its comets reside. The idea was to avoid the cosmic dust and debris left behind by those celestial bodies, allowing the group to take clearer pictures of distant galaxies in deep space.

While doing this, a comet zipped through. It could have gone entirely unnoticed, but Pontinen had written software to identify moving objects, which flagged images where the comet appeared. Pontinen was then able to use its speed and trajectory to find it in other images and report it as a new comet.

"I was excited to see my software flag a 'streak' smeared across several images," Pontinen said in a statement. "Further inspection revealed that it had a fuzzy cloud around it, indicative of an active object like a comet that is shedding dust and gas."

The unexpected comet was reported to the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, where ground-based astronomers confirmed its existence and gave it a name.

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