The Giotto encounter with comet Halley

Abstract

The Giotto spacecraft encountered comet Halley on 14 March 1986, approaching to within ~600km of the nucleus. Its scientific payload comprised ten hardware experiments: a narrow-angle camera, three mass spectrometers (for neutrals, ions and dust), various dust detectors a photopolarimeter and a set of plasma experiments. All experiments performed well and returned a wealth of new scientific results, of which perhaps the most important was the clear identification of the cometary nucleus.