Comet Siding Springs’ Close Encounter With Mars on Oct. 19, 2014

On Oct. 19, the comet will have a very close pass at Mars, just 82,000 miles (132,000 kilometers) from the planet.

More information at :
http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring

Animation of Comet Siding Springs’ Close Encounter With Mars
Comet Siding Spring C/2013 A1 will make a very close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19, 2014. NASA is taking steps to protect its Mars orbiters, while preserving opportunities to gather valuable scientific data. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image 1 – Mars Orbiters ‘Duck and Cover’ for Comet Siding Spring Encounter
This artist’s concept shows the NASA Mars orbiters lining up behind Mars for their “duck and cover” maneuver to shield them from comet dust that may result from the close flyby of Comet Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) on Oct. 19, 2014.
The comet’s nucleus will miss Mars by about 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers), shedding material hurtling at about 35 miles (56 kilometers) per second, relative to Mars and Mars-orbiting spacecraft.

NASA is taking steps to protect its Mars orbiters, while preserving opportunities to gather valuable scientific data. The NASA orbiters at Mars are Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey and MAVEN.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image 2 – View of Comet Siding Spring from Southern Hemisphere
Comet Siding Spring will have a close approach to Mars on Oct. 19, 2014. This artist’s concept shows people in the Southern Hemisphere were to look in the night sky. Mars and the comet may be visible with binoculars.

Image 3 – NASA Assets Observing Comet Siding Spring
NASA’s extensive fleet of science assets, particularly those orbiting and roving Mars, have front row seats to image and study a once-in-a-lifetime comet flyby on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014.

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.

Image Credit: NASA

Image 4 – Comet Siding Springs’ Distance From Mars
If Mars were Earth, comet Siding Spring would pass by at about 1/3 the distance of Earth to the Moon. That’s an extremely close encounter! By contrast, the closest a comet has come to Earth in recorded history was about six times farther out than our Moon. Named comet “Lexell,” it was discovered in 1770, but hasn’t been seen since.

Image 5 – Comet Siding Spring C/2013 A1
This graphic depicts the orbit of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring as it swings around the sun in 2014. On Oct. 19, the comet will have a very close pass at Mars, just 82,000 miles (132,000 kilometers) from the planet. Although the nucleus will miss the planet, the comet’s coma of dust particles might be wide enough to reach the Red Planet. More info at: http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring/

Updated on July 10, 2014

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s NEOWISE mission detected comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring on July 28, 2014, less than three months before this comet’s close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19.

NEOWISE took multiple images of the comet, combined here so that the comet is seen in four different positions relative to the background stars. The image also includes, near the upper right corner, a view of radio galaxy Fornax A (NGC1316).

NEOWISE previously observed comet Siding Spring on Jan. 16, 2014 (see http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17833). NEOWISE is part of a team of observation resources to characterize the comet for the encounter with our neighboring planet. At the time of the July 28 observations, the comet was 144 million miles (1.55 astronomical units) from NEOWISE and 175 million miles (1.88 astronomical units) from the sun. The observations help constrain estimates of dust and gas production as this comet from the outer solar system approaches Mars.

NGC1316 is a famous radio galaxy, the fourth-brightest radio source in the sky at 1400 megahertz. It is in the Fornax galaxy cluster, which also includes two other galaxies visible in the image. NGC1316 has an active nucleus, as evidenced by a radio jet and a compact nuclear gas disk. It is thought to be the remnant of a merger between a large elliptical galaxy and a smaller spiral galaxy about 100 million years ago.

For more information about comet Siding Spring, see http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring/.

For more information about NEOWISE, see http://neowise.ipac.caltech.edu

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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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