Comet Siding Spring Orbit

To further refine the comet s orbit.

Comet siding spring orbit.

That presented a unique science opportunity for the five orbiting spacecraft and two rovers at the red planet. Light takes 2 hours 28 minutes and 26 7935 seconds to travel from comet c 2013 a1 siding spring and arrive to us. A close encounter between mars and comet c 2013 a1 siding spring in 2014 is creating both opportunity and anxiety in scientific circles. Mcnaught at siding spring observatory using the 0 5 meter uppsala southern schmidt telescope.

Images of the comet taken in march 2010 by n howes using the faulkes telescope. New observations of comet c 2013 a1 siding spring have allowed nasa s near earth object office at the jet propulsion laboratory in pasadena calif. After leaving the planetary region of the solar system the post perihelion orbital period is estimated to be roughly 1 million years. Mcnaught spotted it with the constellation lepus in the star background.

Based on data through april 7 2013 the latest orbital plot places the comet s closest approach to mars slightly closer than previous estimates at about 68 000 miles 110 000 kilometers. 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. The comet was visible with binoculars until january 2010. Comet siding spring flew about 87 000 miles from mars during the encounter.

Its orbital path can be seen in the movie below. C 2013 a1 is an oort cloud comet discovered on 3 january 2013 by robert h. Distance kilometers 2 670 189 521 distance au 17 849114. Several spacecraft from nasa europe and india were expected to track the comet s approach from their positions in orbit.

This comet sneaked up on us because it was coming in from underneath the plane of earth s orbit. C 2007 q3 siding spring is an oort cloud comet that was discovered by donna burton in 2007 at siding spring observatory in new south wales australia. The distance of comet c 2013 a1 siding spring from earth is currently 2 670 189 521 kilometers equivalent to 17 849114 astronomical units. It spends the vast majority of its life in the oort cloud.

Siding spring came within 1 2 astronomical units of earth and 2 25 au of the sun on october 7 2009. The most interesting thing about c 2013 a1 s orbit is that it will come very close to mars on october 19 2014. 19 2014 the nucleus of comet c 2013 a1 siding spring missed mars by about one third of the distance between earth and earth s moon or one tenth the distance at which any identified comet has flown past earth. Orbit of comet siding spring.

At the time of its discovery comet siding spring was farther from the sun than jupiter. C 2013 a1 passed the planet. Scientists are in the early stages of assembling a. Comet c 2013 a1 probably took millions of years to come from the oort cloud.