50th ESLAB Symposium - From Giotto to Rosetta

Introduction

The 50th ESLAB Symposium took place from Monday 14 March to Friday 18 March 2016 in the Holiday Inn Hotel in Leiden, The Netherlands. The meeting focused on a celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the C1P/Halley encounter by Giotto and also the ongoing Rosetta investigation of C67P.

30 years ago Giotto opened the window to the mysteries of comets. Rosetta has been able to open this window much wider through its long term escort and by deploying the lander Philae on a comet's surface. In the meeting, scientists from the numerous cometary missions came together to compare and build upon their achievements.

The meeting was organised in a series of plenary sessions focusing on the following themes:

1. Nucleus surface and interior
2. Process of cometary activity and nucleus-inner coma interaction
3. Coma composition and physical properties (dust, refractories, volatiles, plasma)
4. Cometary origins and evolution of the solar system
5. New and un-resolved questions in cometary science and how to resolve them.

A special issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society dedicated to the science presented at the meeting is available online here:
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/issue/462/Suppl_1

Details on the programme and a copy of the abstract book are available here:

• Programme
• Abstract book

Organising Committee