22 NOV. 2002
Veröffentlichungsdatum
3065
Aufrufe
Rosetta is not ESA's first visit to a comet. Much of what we know about comets came from ESA's pioneering Giotto mission. During an unprecedented visit to two comets, Giotto provided tantalising glimpses of a comet's dust-shrouded core.
On the night of 13-14 March 1986, eight months after launch, the cylindrical spacecraft swept past Comet Halley, obtaining the first close-up images ever obtained of a comet nucleus. The image sequence taken by the Halley Multicolour Camera (HMC) revealed a black, potato-shaped object, partially illuminated on the warmer, sunlit side by bright jets spewing gas and dust into space.
Despite being partially disabled by bullet-like dust impacts, this triumph was followed six years later by a successful flyby of Comet Grigg-Skjellerup, on 10 July 1992. Skimming by just 200 km from the nucleus, it was, at the time, the closest comet fly-by ever achieved by any spacecraft.
Diese Seite teilen
auf dem Laufenden bleiben
Abonnieren Sie unseren Newsletter, um die neuesten Nachrichten, Missionsupdates und exklusiven Einblicke direkt in Ihrem Posteingang zu erhalten. Erfahren Sie als Erste von unseren kommenden Projekten und Durchbrüchen.