The 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko observation campaign in support of the Rosetta mission.

We present a summary of the campaign of remote observations that supported the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission. Telescopes across the globe (and in space) followed comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from before Rosetta's arrival until nearly the end of the mission in September 2016. These provided essential data for mission planning, large-scale context information for the coma and tails beyond the spacecraft and a way to directly compare 67P with other comets. The observations revealed 67P to be a relatively 'well-behaved' comet, typical of Jupiter family comets and with activity patterns that repeat from orbit to orbit. Comparison between this large collection of telescopic observations and the in situ results from Rosetta will allow us to better understand comet coma chemistry and structure. This work is just beginning as the mission ends-in this paper, we present a summary of the ground-based observations and early results, and point to many questions that will be addressed in future studies.This article is part of the themed issue 'Cometary science after Rosetta'.

Deep Impact: observations from a worldwide Earth-based campaign.

On 4 July 2005, many observatories around the world and in space observed the collision of Deep Impact with comet 9P/Tempel 1 or its aftermath. This was an unprecedented coordinated observational campaign. These data show that (i) there was new material after impact that was compositionally different from that seen before impact; (ii) the ratio of dust mass to gas mass in the ejecta was much larger than before impact; (iii) the new activity did not last more than a few days, and by 9 July the comet's behavior was indistinguishable from its pre-impact behavior; and (iv) there were interesting transient phenomena that may be correlated with cratering physics.

Optical observations of comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) at large heliocentric distances before perihelion.

The activity of comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) was monitored monthly by optical imaging and long-slit spectroscopy of its dust and gas distribution over heliocentric distances of 4.6 to 2.9 astronomical units. The observed band intensities of the NH2 radical and the H2O+ ion cannot be explained by existing models of fluorescence excitation, warranting a reexamination of the corresponding production rates, at least at large heliocentric distances. Comparing the production rate of the CN radical to its proposed parent, HCN, shows no evidence for the need of a major additional source for CN in Hale-Bopp at large heliocentric distances. The dust and CN production rates are consistent with a significant amount of sublimation occurring from icy dust grains surrounding Hale-Bopp.