Comet Giacobini-Zinner (21P/Giacobini-Zinner)

A periodic comet discovered in 1900. Its period of revolution around the Sun is 6.5 years. The Draconids, a meteor shower seen in October of some years, is associated with the comet, resulting from debris that follows the same orbit as the comet entering the Earth's atmosphere. In 1985, the American space probe International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE) 3, originally launched in 1978 for a different purpose, was directed to pass through the tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner in a project called ICE (International Cometary Explorer).