For all active comets except Halley , it was only possible to see the surrounding opaque gas cloud called the coma . During Comet Halley 's most recent pass through the inner Solar System in 1986, however, spacecraft Giotto was able to go right up to the comet and photograph its nucleus. The above image is a composite of hundreds of these photographs. Every 76 years Comet Halley comes around again, and each time the nucleus sheds about 6 meters of ice and rock into space. This debris composes Halley's tails and leaves an orbiting trail that, when falling to Earth , are called the Orionids Meteor Shower .
Specific rights apply .