Comet Siding Spring Earth

Animation of comet c 2013 a1 siding spring mars encounter via near earth object neo office and nasa jpl.

Comet siding spring earth.

C 2013 a1 siding spring is an oort cloud comet discovered on 3 january 2013 by robert h. The telescope that discovered comet siding spring was decommissioned in late 2013 and the southern near earth object survey was shutdown. Luckily asteroid and comet hunter robert h. Light takes 2 hours 28 minutes and 26 7935 seconds to travel from comet c 2013 a1 siding spring and arrive to us.

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. On october 19 2014 comet siding spring will pass by mars only 139 500 km away which would be like a comet passing about 1 3 of the distance between earth and the moon. We hope to witness two atmospheres colliding explains david brain of the university of colorado s laboratory for. At the time of its discovery comet siding spring was farther from the sun than jupiter.

Comet siding spring came within just 87 000 miles 139 500 kilometers of the martian surface at 2 27 p m. Edt 1827 gmt today about one third of the distance between earth and the moon. Comet c 2013 a1 siding spring distance from earth. This has left the southern skies without a dedicated.

When comet siding spring passed mars the comet s coma washed over the planet for several hours with the dense inner coma perhaps reaching the surface. Mcnaught at siding spring observatory using the 0 5 meter 20 in uppsala southern schmidt telescope. 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. The distance of comet c 2013 a1 siding spring from earth is currently 2 670 189 521 kilometers equivalent to 17 849114 astronomical units.

Mcnaught spotted it with the constellation lepus in the star background. The nucleus of the comet won t hit mars but there could be a different kind of collision.