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Small-body mission · ESA

Giotto

ESA's first deep-space mission — it flew within about 600 km of the nucleus of Halley's Comet in 1986, returning the first close-up images of a comet's nucleus. It survived the high-speed dust encounter and went on to fly past a second comet, Grigg–Skjellerup.

CompletedFlyby Mission

Imagery

Comet Halley

In 1986, the European spacecraft Giotto became one of the first spacecraft ever to encounter and photograph the nucleus of a comet, passing and imaging Halley nucleus as it receded from the sun.

1986

NASA/ESA/Giotto Project · NASA media (public domain)

Source archive ↗

This is the small-body-missions view of Giotto. See its main mission page for the full profile.

Targets & sample

Target bodies:Halley's Comet
Also:Comet 1P/Halley (1986) and comet 26P/Grigg–Skjellerup (1992)

Mission & science

Goals
Return close-up images and in-situ measurements of the nucleus of Halley's Comet.
Engineering milestones
First close-up images of a comet nucleus (1986); part of the international Halley Armada.
Science discoveries
Halley's nucleus is a dark, peanut-shaped body; confirmed comets as 'dirty snowballs'.
Outcome
Complete success; ESA's first interplanetary mission.

Knowledge connections

Sources

The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.

  • ESAEuropean Space Agency

    European missions, observatories, and space science imagery.