A comet as massive as a small mountain will pass pretty close to Mars
this Sunday, approaching within 87,000 miles at a speed of 126,000 mph.
All NASA's Mars explorers, as well as an European and an Indian spacecraft that are circling the red planet will be on position to witness the first known visit to the inner solar system of the comet called "Siding Spring".
NASA program scientist Kelly Fast said: "We certainly have fingers crossed for the first images of a comet from the surface of another world," "We're getting ready for a spectacular set of observations," completed Jim Green, head of NASA's planetary science division.
Keep an eye on the sky on Sunday afternoon, Eastern Time. The best to observe this event will be the Southern Hemisphere, Africa and Australia. Hopefully Europeans will get some good images afterwords. No comet has come anywhere near this close to Earth in recorded history.
"We can't get to an Oort Cloud comet with our current rockets ... so this comet is coming to us," said Carey Lisse, senior astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University's applied physics laboratory.
"Think about a comet that started its travel probably at the dawn of man and it's just coming in close now," Lisse said. "And the reason we can actually observe it is because we have built satellites and rovers. We've now got outposts around Mars."
"Comets are complex beasts and don't always live up to our predictions," Farnham said in an email Wednesday. "If you don't want surprises, then don't study comets."
Few days will be necessary to obtain and analyze data from the spacecrafts but we will surely get images from Earth pretty quick. Passing Mars and reaching the Sun after six days, the comet will wave goodbye and head out our solar system for another million years.
All NASA's Mars explorers, as well as an European and an Indian spacecraft that are circling the red planet will be on position to witness the first known visit to the inner solar system of the comet called "Siding Spring".
NASA program scientist Kelly Fast said: "We certainly have fingers crossed for the first images of a comet from the surface of another world," "We're getting ready for a spectacular set of observations," completed Jim Green, head of NASA's planetary science division.
Keep an eye on the sky on Sunday afternoon, Eastern Time. The best to observe this event will be the Southern Hemisphere, Africa and Australia. Hopefully Europeans will get some good images afterwords. No comet has come anywhere near this close to Earth in recorded history.
"We can't get to an Oort Cloud comet with our current rockets ... so this comet is coming to us," said Carey Lisse, senior astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University's applied physics laboratory.
"Think about a comet that started its travel probably at the dawn of man and it's just coming in close now," Lisse said. "And the reason we can actually observe it is because we have built satellites and rovers. We've now got outposts around Mars."
"Comets are complex beasts and don't always live up to our predictions," Farnham said in an email Wednesday. "If you don't want surprises, then don't study comets."
Few days will be necessary to obtain and analyze data from the spacecrafts but we will surely get images from Earth pretty quick. Passing Mars and reaching the Sun after six days, the comet will wave goodbye and head out our solar system for another million years.
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