NASA’s Comet Siding Spring Mars Fly-by Video Describes Agency’s Plan to Cover Celestial Event

This Sunday, October 19th, a number of NASA probes and spacecraft, particularly those near Mars, will be used to record images and data as comet Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) as it make an incredibly close fly-by of the Red planet.

As the NASA video about Siding Spring illustrates, the comet will pass within about 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) of Mars on Sunday. This is less than half the distance between Earth and our moon and less than one-tenth the distance of any known comet flyby of Earth.

Watch NASA video about the Comet Siding Spring Mars Fly-By below:

At its closest approach to Mars, Siding Spring will be traveling at about 126,000 mph (56 kilometers per second). This point in the fly-by should occur at about 2:27 p.m. EDT.

At this close range to the planet, scientists expect to have an unprecedented opportunity to gather data on both the comet and its effect on the Martian atmosphere.

“This is a cosmic science gift that could potentially keep on giving, and the agency’s diverse science missions will be in full receive mode,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This particular comet has never before entered the inner solar system, so it will provide a fresh source of clues to our solar system’s earliest days.”

To take full advantage of the opportunity, NASA will be pointing everything it has at the comet including assets both in orbit and on the ground on Mars. This includes the NASA Mars rovers Opportunity and Curiosity.

NASA’s Mars orbiters will gather information before, during and after the flyby about the size, rotation and activity of the comet’s nucleus, the variability and gas composition of the coma around the nucleus, and the size and distribution of dust particles in the comet’s tail.

Meanwhile, here on Earth, terrestrial and space telescopes, including NASA’s iconic Hubble Space Telescope, will be in position to observe Siding Spring. NASA’s astrophysics space observatories — Kepler, Swift, Spitzer, Chandra — and the ground-based Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawaii — also will be tracking the event.

Those interested will be able to see comet Siding Spring images and updates online as they will be posted both before and after the comet flyby. Several pre-flyby images of Siding Spring, as well as information about the comet and NASA’s planned observations of the event are available online at: http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring.