Comet Siding Spring Update

At the time of its discovery comet siding spring was farther from the sun than jupiter about 7 2 times farther away from the sun than earth.

Comet siding spring update.

19 at a distance of approximately 87 000 miles. Comet buzzes mars in once in a lifetime flyby the comet siding spring has successfully zoomed by mars in a super rare close encounter that is one for the history books. Siding spring officially designated comet c 2013 a1 made its closest approach to mars at 2 28 p m. Mcnaught at siding spring observatory using the 0 5 meter 20 in uppsala southern schmidt telescope.

Hurtling through space at about 35 miles 56 kilometers per second comet siding spring c 2013 a1 will sweep very close to the planet mars today. An illustration by nasa depicts the comet siding spring 2013 a1 traveling toward mars a comet the size of a small mountain and. 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. At the time of discovery it was 7 2 au from the sun and located in the constellation lepus comet c 2013 a1 probably took millions of years to come from the oort cloud.

Update october 18 2014. C 2013 a1 siding spring is an oort cloud comet discovered on 3 january 2013 by robert h. Mcnaught achieved this triumph on january 3 2013 using the 0 5 meter 20 inch uppsala schmidt telescope at siding spring observatory in new south wales australia. Comet siding spring whizzes past mars update by jenny vaughan.