In 1986, the European spacecraft Giotto encountered the nucleus of Halley's comet as it approached the sun. Data from Giotto's camera was used to generate this enhanced image of the potato shaped nucleus which measures roughly 15 kilometres across. It shows surface features on the dark nucleus against the bright background of the coma as the icy material is vapourized by the Sun's heat. Every 76 years Comet Halley returns to the inner solar system and each time the nucleus sheds about a 6 metre deep layer of its ice and rock into space. This debris composes Halley's tails and leaves an orbiting trail responsible for the Orionids meteor shower .
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