19P/Borrelly
Periodic comet
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Deep Space 1 returned images of the comet's nucleus from 3400 kilometers away. At 45 meters per pixel, it was the highest resolution view ever seen of a comet up until that time.
Discovery
The comet was discovered by Alphonse Borrelly during a routine search for comets at Marseille, France on 28 December 1904.
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Exploration
Deep Space 1 flyby
On 21 September 2001 the spacecraft Deep Space 1, which was launched to test new equipment in space, performed a flyby of Borrelly. It was steered toward the comet during the extended mission of the craft, and presented an unexpected bonus for the mission scientists. Despite the failure of a system that helped determine its orientation, Deep Space 1 managed to send back to Earth what were, at the time, the best images and other science data from a comet.