Adjunct scientist, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg / Former Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency / JWST Science Working Group Interdisciplinary Scientist / Co-founder Space Rocks / New worlds ahead / Opinions very much own Now living in a hilly part of Germany & very much missing regular cycling with the wide horizons & big skies of The Netherlands 😢🚴♂️
Adjunct scientist, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg / Former Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency / JWST Science Working Group Interdisciplinary Scientist / Co-founder Space Rocks / New worlds ahead / Opinions very much own Now living in a hilly part of Germany & very much missing regular cycling with the wide horizons & big skies of The Netherlands 😢🚴♂️
Coming up soon: the 40th anniversary of the ESA Giotto probe’s flyby of Comet 1P/Halley, with closest approach at 00:03:02 UTC on 14 March 1986.
Giotto flew within 596 km of the comet at a relative velocity of ~250,000 km/h, so it was all over quickly, but remarkable views of the 14.5 km long dark icy monster were had.
Albeit not this composite made later by Nick Thomas on the Giotto team.
What happened as images streamed back to live TV is another story 😬✌️
Who remembers that night?