Best Comet

The Gray-bellied Comet (Taphrolesbia griseiventris) is a hummingbird species endemic to Peru, restricted to montane scrub and arid valleys in the north-central Andes. Its plumage features an iridescent green back and a distinctive gray belly, with a long, slightly decurved bill adapted for feeding o...

ISEE-3 (International Sun-Earth Explorer 3) was a NASA spacecraft launched on August 12, 1978, originally placed in a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point, making it the first spacecraft stationed at a Lagrange point. In 1982 it was redirected and renamed the International Cometary Expl...

EPOXI was a NASA extended mission that repurposed the Deep Impact spacecraft after its primary mission to study extrasolar planets and flyby comets. The mission combined two investigative components: EPOCh, which observed exoplanets, and DIXI, which executed a close flyby of Comet Hartley 2 in 2010....

The Deep Space 1 mission, undertaken by NASA, investigated Comet Hale-Bopp in 1998. This spacecraft demonstrated the viability of ion propulsion for deep space travel. It successfully tested an electric propulsion system while observing a comet and later an asteroid. The mission provided valuable da...

Philae was a robotic lander developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and carried to space by the Rosetta spacecraft. In November 2014, it achieved the first-ever soft landing on a comet, specifically 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, marking a historic milestone in space exploration. Due to a failure i...

This NASA extended mission utilized the Stardust spacecraft to fly by Comet Tempel 1 in 2011, successfully imaging the crater created by the Deep Impact mission in 2005.

Launched by Japan's ISAS in 1985, Suisei was an unmanned space probe designed to study Halley's Comet, successfully observing the solar wind interaction with its coma.

The bronze-tailed comet is a species of hummingbird endemic to Peru and the sole member of the genus Polyonymus. First described by the naturalist Jules Bourcier in 1847, this bird inhabits the montane scrub and high-altitude forest edges of the Peruvian Andes. It is characterized by its short, stra...

Launched by Japan in 1985, Sakigake was the nation's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first of two probes to observe Halley's Comet during its 1986 inner solar pass.

Vega 1 was a Soviet space probe launched in December 1984 to study Venus and Halley's Comet. In June 1985, the spacecraft deployed a descent module containing a lander and an instrumented balloon into the atmosphere of Venus. Following this successful deployment, the main spacecraft continued its jo...

Vega 2 was an unmanned Soviet space probe launched in December 1984 as part of the Venera-Halley program. The mission successfully deployed a descent lander and an instrumented balloon into the atmosphere of Venus in June 1985 before using a gravity assist to fly past and photograph Halley's Comet i...

Giotto was a European Space Agency spacecraft launched in 1985 to investigate Halley's Comet during its 1986 return to the inner Solar System. It passed close to the comet's nucleus and returned the first detailed images showing a dark, irregular solid body emitting jets of gas and dust. Despite dam...

The grey-bellied comet is a rare hummingbird species endemic to the Andes of northern Peru and the sole member of its genus, Taphrolesbia. Characterized by its striking coloration, this bird features a distinctive grey belly and an elongated, forked tail. It primarily inhabits arid, montane scrub en...

Lucifer's Hammer is a 1977 science fiction novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle detailing the catastrophic impact of a comet on Earth and the subsequent collapse of human civilization. The narrative is divided between the discovery of the comet, the initial impact event, and the desperate surviv...

Night of the Comet is a 1984 American science fiction comedy film written and directed by Thom Eberhardt. It follows sisters Regina and Samantha after Earth passes through the tail of a comet, leaving most people reduced to dust and some survivors transformed into hostile, zombie-like creatures. Set...

Tianwen-2 is China's 2025 asteroid sample-return mission to Kamo'oalewa, designed to return material before continuing to comet 311P.

Greenland: Migration is an upcoming American disaster film directed by Ric Roman Waugh, serving as a highly anticipated sequel to the 2020 comet-impact thriller Greenland.

A Fire in the Sky is a 1978 NBC disaster television film directed by Jerry Jameson, notable for a Paul Gallico comet-impact story set around Phoenix.

NASA Comet Nucleus Tour spacecraft launched in 2002 that was lost shortly after its departure burn from Earth orbit due to a catastrophic thruster failure.