Comet Siding Spring Passes Mars

The comet will come within 139 500 km 87 000 miles of the red planet which is sixteen times closer to mars.

Comet siding spring passes mars.

Initial observations by leonid elenin on 27 february 2013 suggested that it might pass 0 000276 au 41 300 km. The nucleus of the comet won t hit mars but there could be a different kind of collision. Comet siding spring is about to fly historically close to mars. 86 500 mi from the center point of mars and the uncertainty region shows.

Comet siding spring s dust tail will completely engulf the entire planet when mars travels through it. Visit http science nasa gov for more. See how the comet siding spring flyby of mars works in this. 19 comet c 2013 a1 also known as comet siding spring will pass within about 87 000 miles 139 500 kilometers of the red planet less than half the distance between earth and our moon and less than one tenth the distance of any known comet flyby of earth.

To take advantage of this unique opportunity to study the close interaction of a comet and a planet humanity currently has five active spacecraft orbiting mars. Comet siding spring passed extremely close to mars on 19 october 2014 at 18 28 0 01 utc. 25 700 mi from the center of mars. Hubble images show comet siding spring has passed the snow and water lines the points at which the sun s warmth activates or releases gases and water ice to form the coma and tail.

The encounter could spark martian auroras a meteor. On october 19 2014 comet siding spring will pass by mars only 139 500 km away which would be like a comet passing about 1 3 of the distance between earth and the moon. Nasa s maven mro mars odyssey as well as esa. We hope to witness two atmospheres colliding explains david brain of the university of colorado s laboratory for.

See amazing images of comet siding spring in a rare celestial event a comet will pass closer to mars than the moon is from earth. With an observation arc of 733 days the nominal pass is 0 000931 au 139 300 km. Nasa s mars exploration rover opportunity captured images of a comet passing much closer to mars than any previous known comet flyby of earth or mars. In fact comet c 2013 a1 siding spring passed closer to the red planet than any comet has ever passed to earth in recorded history.

The images of comet siding spring were taken against a backdrop of the pre dawn martian sky on sunday oct.