Giotto Met Halley 20 Years Ago

[Fraser]

SUMMARY: This week the European Space Agency celebrated the 20-year anniversary of the Giotto spacecraft's encounter with Comet Halley. This was ESA's first deep space mission, which launched on board an Ariane 1 rocket. Giotto flew for 8 months, traveling almost 150 million kilometres. It swept past the comet on March 13, 1986, getting as close as 596 km (370 miles), and delivered the best pictures ever seen of a comet's nucleus.

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[Eric Vaxxine]

I remember late one night, just as I was about to go to bed, I flicked channels on my TV and there was this picture of a comet. Very, very slowly it started getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger ( 10 minutes later) and bigger. It eventually got so close that I could see stuff burning/boiling off the comet as we travelled past it.

It was stunning footage. Thanks Giotto. Where are you now?