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.
Comet siding spring update.
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.
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.
19 comet c 2013 a1 comet siding spring will pass within about 87 000 miles 139 500 km of mars.
An illustration by nasa depicts the comet siding spring 2013 a1 traveling toward mars a comet the size of a small mountain and.
Update october 18 2014.
Comet siding spring whizzes past mars update by jenny vaughan.
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.
Nasa s hubble space telescope has produced a unique composite image of comet siding spring as it made its never before seen close passage of a comet by mars.
19 at a distance of approximately 87 000 miles.
Siding spring officially designated comet c 2013 a1 made its closest approach to mars at 2 28 p m.
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.