Recently in the Comets Category

The exploits of comet-hunting spacecraft Rosetta are generating intense interest as it speeds towards a dramatic climax this autumn.

It was a fairy-tale ending to a tense chapter in the story of the Rosetta space mission this evening as ESA heard from its distant spacecraft for the first time in 31 months.

Comets are among the most beautiful and least understood nomads of the night sky. To date, half a dozen of these most heavenly of heavenly bodies have been visited by spacecraft in an attempt to unlock their secrets

This short movie tells the story of Rosetta's journey through the Solar System so far, through the voices of some of the many people involved in this exciting mission.

After a ten year journey through space, ESA's Rosetta spacecraft will reach comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August 2014.

There are hundreds of comets flying around the Solar System, each of them a potential target for ESA's comet-chasing Rosetta mission.

After several days of continued observations, scientists continue to work to determine and to understand the fate of Comet ISON.

The unusual shape of the comet's tail permits conclusions about yesterday's encounter with the sun November 29, 2013

Comet ISON went around the sun on Nov. 28, 2013. Several solar observatories watched the comet throughout this closest approach to the sun, known as perihelion.

SOHO image showing comet ISON approaching the Sun. ISON makes its closest approach on 28 November, when it will pass at a distance of 1.2 million kilometres above the Sun's visible surface. SOHO's instruments are expected to have a view of the comet as it passes through their fields-of-view.