Giotto ESA Mission Patch

Giotto ESA Mission Patch

This ESA mission patch was produced for the Giotto mission - ESA's first deep space mission. Giotto was launched in 1985, sent to study Halley's Comet close-up. The spacecraft travelled to 596 kilometres from the comet's nucleus, surviving the encounter and going on to be directed towards a second comet - Grigg-Skjellerup.

The patch depicts the Giotto satellite - named after Renaissance painter Giotto di Bondone, who included Halley's Comet in his painting, 'The Adoration of the Magi'. Halley's Comet is visible from Earth with the naked eye around every 75 years. Therefore, it has featured in paintings and even the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the Battle of Hastings in 1066 - a year that the comet could be seen.

The patch also features the comet itself, with a representation of what it might look like. The Giotto mission though was the first to take close-up images of a comet nucleus, revealing the size and shape of Halley's nucleus, as well as showing that its surface is very dark and that bright jets of gas and dust spring trail out from the nucleus.