Tag Archives: Comet C/2013 A1

Colliding atmospheres: Mars vs C/Siding Spring

Posted on August 12, 2014 by rburnham

On October 19, 2014, Comet Siding Spring will pass by Mars only 132,000 km away — which would be like a comet passing about 1/3 of the distance between Earth and the Moon. The nucleus of the comet won’t hit … Continue reading →

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NEOWISE spots Mars-bound comet

Posted on August 7, 2014 by rburnham

NASA’s NEOWISE [asteroid-hunting] 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 … Continue reading →

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Mars Odyssey maneuvers for comet flyby

Posted on August 6, 2014 by rburnham

NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has successfully adjusted the timing of its orbit around Mars as a defensive precaution for a comet’s close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19, 2014. The orbiter fired thrusters for five and a half seconds on … Continue reading →

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Satellite tallies Mars-bound comet’s water output

Posted on June 20, 2014 by rburnham

In late May, NASA’s Swift satellite imaged Comet Siding Spring, which will brush astonishingly close to Mars later this year. These optical and ultraviolet observations are the first to reveal how rapidly the comet is producing water and allow astronomers … Continue reading →

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HST images Mars-bound comet’s multiple jets

Posted on March 27, 2014 by rburnham

Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring is plunging toward the Sun along a roughly 1-million-year orbit. The comet, discovered in 2013, was within the radius of Jupiter’s orbit when the Hubble Space Telescope photographed it on March 11, 2014. Hubble resolves … Continue reading →

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