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COMET


The nucleus of the P/Halley comet, observed in 1986 by the European probe Giotto.


COMET is a cometary grains collection experiment on Earth orbit. The collecting boxes are installed on a beam outside the space vehicule, and opened when the Earth crosses the meteoritic swarm (mainly cometary dust). At the end of the observation period, the boxes are taken back to the Earth where an impact and grains residuals analysis is performed.

This experiment flew a first time on Saliout-7 in 1985 (collect of grains in the Draconides swarm, linked to the Giacobini-Ziner comet), then on the american space shuttle and finally under a new form (ESEF-COMRADE) on the MIR space station in 1995 (Orionides swarm, linked to the Halley's comet).

The boxes have been reinstalled in november 1998 on board of the MIR station, and have been opened during the Leonides swarm crossing, linked to the Tempel-Tuttle comet in november 1998. The collected samples are yet under study

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