There are moments in space exploration that will never be forgotten. One of these will forever be called The night of the comet.

It was 25 years ago that the European Space Agency's Giotto mission obtained the very first pictures of the nucleus of a comet. The high-risk flyby attracted intense public interest.

ESA recently celebrated this anniversary, bringing together leading actors of the Giotto mission. Many of them are scientists who today are working on ESA's Rosetta mission whose probe has just entered a long period of hibernation before its cometary encounter.