Comet Siding Spring View From Mars

Comet siding spring flew about 87 000.

Comet siding spring view from mars.

The comet siding spring has made its close flyby of mars on oct. 19 comet c 2013 a1 comet siding spring will pass within about 87 000 miles 139 500 km of mars. Nasa s extensive fleet of science assets particularly those orbiting and roving mars have front row seats to image and study this once in a lifetime flyby. This composite hubble space telescope image captures the positions of comet siding spring and mars in a never before seen close passage of a comet by the red planet which happened at 2 28 p m.

In orbit around mars were the spacecraft mars reconnaissance orbiter 2001 mars odyssey esa s mars express maven and the indian mars orbiter mission mangalyaan. The faint comet shows a small condensed coma and bent tail. Astrophotographer damian peach shares this spectacular image of comet c 2013 a1 siding spring approaching mars taken just hours ago. The dense inner coma reached the surface of the planet or nearly so.

This animation and still image of comet c 2013 a1 siding spring were taken by the mast camera mastcam on nasa s curiosity mars rover as the comet passed near the red planet on oct. The close encounter between comet siding spring and mars flooded the planet with an invisible tide of charged particles from the comet s coma. On that date the comet passed by mars at approximately 87 000 miles about one third the distance between earth and the moon. Comet siding spring seen next to mars.

The images of comet siding spring were taken against a backdrop of the pre dawn martian sky on sunday oct. 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. Edt october 19 2014.