17 May
2000: On 17 May 2000, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a true-colour image of nebula N11A.N11A lies within a spectacular star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small ...
27 FEB. 2004
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1991: On 18 May 1991, British-born cosmonaut Helen Sharman was launched into space on board a Soyuz spacecraft.
The first Briton in space, alongside crew mates Anatoli Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalev, they orbited Earth for two days before docking with the Mir space station. She performed a range of experiments, including looking at how 'weightlessness' affects people, plants and the growth of crystals.
She spent a total of eight days in space.
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Comet Halley's nucleus as seen by Giotto
1910: On 18 May 1910, Earth nearly passed through the tail of Comet Halley.
By late 1909, several of the world's major observatories eagerly waited for Halley's reappearance. The public too awaited the moment when the comet became visible to the naked eye. Scientists had made calculations that between 18 May and 19 May, Earth would pass through Comet Halley's tail.
Contemporary newspapers discussed the catastrophic effects of the gaseous comet on Earth's atmosphere, causing many to panic. In fact, the tail of the comet came no closer than 400 000 kilometres from Earth, and would not have been harmful at any distance.
In 1986, ESA's Giotto mission visited Comet Halley.
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16 May
1998: On 16 May 1998, ESA's Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) mission finished. Scientists communicated with the satellite for the last time, forcing it to change its orbit so that it ...
15 May
1998: On 15 May 1998, astronomers obtained an unprecedented look at the nearest example of galactic cannibalism - a massive black hole hidden at the centre of a nearby giant ...
14 May
2003: On 14 May 2003, ESA's comet-chasing Rosetta mission was given a new destination, Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, at a meeting of ESA's Science Programme Committee.The rendezvous with the new target comet ...
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