Mastodawn

🛰️☄️ Il y a 40 ans, le 13 mars 1986, la mission #Giotto entrait dans l'histoire comme première mission d'exploration spatiale lointaine de l'ESA, effectuant le premier survol rapproché d'une comète : #Halley.
Giotto est le précurseur à l'inoubliable mission Rosetta.
Giotto a renvoyé plus de 2 000 images et données provenant de ses instruments scientifiques, enrichissant nos connaissances sur les comètes et l'origine du Système Solaire. Ses images du noyau ont confirmé sa forme allongée, et non sphérique, et sa composition majoritairement constituée de poussière et de glace, et non l'inverse. La poussière découverte par Giotto était organique et riche en éléments essentiels à la vie.
La mission initialement prévue pour durer quelques mois seulement s'est transformée en une « odyssée » de 7 ans. Giotto a été réactivé en 1990 pour un survol de la comète Grigg-Skjellerup, avec un passage au plus près à environ 200 km le 10 juillet 1992.
L'ESA vient d'ouvrir les archives de la mission : https://historicalarchives.esa.int/giotto-cometary-encounters-and-archival-sources

cosmowiki Mar 14

14. März 1986: #Giotto, die erste interplanetare Raumsonde der #ESA passiert den Kometen #Halley in nur 596 km Abstand und liefert Fotos und Gasanalysen.

Daniel Fischer Mar 13

40 years ago tonight the #Giotto spacecraft passed the nucleus of #comet #Halley at great speed: the documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI-W8ss4x5I from back then - also at https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/Undated/Giotto_-_English with bonus material - tells the story well. A big special issue of the ESA Bulletin about the mission is at https://esamultimedia.esa.int/multimedia/publications/ESA-Bulletin-046/offline/download.pdf and other historical material like some photos is linked from https://historicalarchives.esa.int/giotto-cometary-encounters-and-archival-sources while a recording of the BBC's live coverage is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxDMdH4uzxI

GIOTTO, ESA remembers the night of the comet

YouTube

cosmowiki Mar 9

9. März 1986: Die sowj. Venussonde #Vega2 passiert den Kometen #Halley in 8030 Kilometern Entfernung. Sie war am 15. Dez 1984 gestartet.

cosmowiki Mar 6

6. März 1986: Die sowj. Venussonde #Vega1 passiert den Kometen #Halley in 8890 Kilometern Entfernung. Sie war am 15. Dez 1984 gestartet.

Liam O'Mara IV, PhD Feb 9

I felt privileged to see #HalleysComet under a clear desert sky back in 1986. #Halley last reached the inner solar system on #ThisDayInHistory in 1986 and was visible for a few months to the unaided eye. It will next return to us in 2061 and I hope I'm still here to see it.

Fabrizio Musacchio Feb 1

Thanks @albertcardona for sharing this! I wasn’t aware of the #BayeuxTapestry at all, nor that #Halley’s #Comet played such a prominent role in #MedievalArt and perception. A fascinating story! https://mathstodon.xyz/@albertcardona/115992114758518351

Albert Cardona Jan 31

English history and Halley's comet:
"The significance of Halley's Comet in the Bayeux Tapestry", Lewis and Zwart 2025 https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.14809

#Halley #history #England

The significance of Halley's Comet in the Bayeux Tapestry

A comet appears in the Bayeux Tapestry between the scene showing the death of the English king Edward the Confessor and the election of his successor, Harold Godwinson. The Tapestry's inscription only refers to this as a star, though we can see from its depiction, shown with a hairy tail, that it is a comet, now known to us as Halleys Comet P1/Halley. Behind the exciting story of the Bayeux Tapestry, however, goes a rich mythological world of intrigue, deceit, the succession of kings, and earlier sightings of the same comet. In historical accounts of many cultures, comets are generally considered portents of change rather than disaster. Here we consider the significance of the Tapestry's comet in the context of the so-called English succession crisis of 1066 with reference to other contemporary accounts of comets. We conclude that although the tapestry's illustration is suggestive and unmistakably Halleys Comet, it is not a priority for its creators to give a precise account of its arrival in the sky, but rather connect it, likely for political reasons, albeit retrospectively, to the sequential events of Edwards death and Harolds coronation. In that, the tapestry's anonymous artists provide a unique telling of its arrival.

arXiv.org

Atreides Jan 21

#astronomy

Onderzoek: komeet van #Halley in 11de eeuw al ontdekt (en moet dus eigenlijk anders heten) https://nos.nl/l/2599124

Onderzoek: komeet van Halley in 11de eeuw al ontdekt (en moet dus eigenlijk anders heten)

Uit de studie blijkt dat niet de Britse wetenschapper Edmund Halley, maar een middeleeuwse monnik als eerste zag dat dezelfde komeet na 76 jaar weer voorbij kwam.

志摩リン Nov 24

#retrogaming #Halley’s_Comet