Comet Siding Spring Buzzes Mars

The comet siding spring whizzed within 87 000 miles of mars close enough to the red planet that the fleet of spacecraft orbiting mars ducked for cover.

Comet siding spring buzzes mars.

The comet siding spring whizzed within 87 000 miles of mars close enough for nasa to force its fleet of spacecraft orbiting mars to duck for cover. Comet siding spring hails from the oort cloud. Comet siding spring s close encounter with the fleet of orbiters and rovers at mars is expected to give scientists their most detailed look yet at an object from the oort cloud. In october comet siding spring will buzz mars at 125 000 miles per hour and close enough for the comet s tail of gas and dust to envelop the planet.

Edt 1827 gmt today about one third of the distance between earth and the moon. Several spacecraft from nasa europe and india were expected to track the comet s approach from their positions in orbit. Nasa s mars orbiters lined up behind the red planet to avoid dust from the comet siding spring c 2013 a1. The comet will buzz the red planet on october 19.

Comet siding spring mars flyby on sunday oct. Spacecraft are not to scale in a rare cosmic close encounter the comet siding spring. 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. 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.

Comet siding spring flew about 87 000 miles from mars during the encounter. An artist s conception of comet siding spring and mars.