Close comet flyby threw mars magnetic field into chaos.
Comet siding spring 2016.
Below we provide comet c 2013 a1 siding spring finder charts showing where the object is right now in the sky with respect to the brightest stars.
A comet s coma is the atmosphere of gas and dust around the nucleus of the comet.
The close encounter between comet siding spring and mars flooded the planet with an invisible tide of charged particles from the comet s coma.
C 2013 a1 siding spring is an oort cloud comet discovered on 3 january 2013 by robert h.
The comet s powerful magnetic field temporarily merged with and overwhelmed the planet s weak field as shown in this artist s.
The close encounter between comet siding spring and mars flooded the planet with an invisible tide of charged particles from the comet s coma.
10 march 2016 astronomy now.
The dense inner coma reached the surface of the planet or nearly so.
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 comet s powerful magnetic field temporarily merged with and overwhelmed the planet s weak field as shown in this artist s depiction.
The first finder chart has a field of view of 50 degrees while the second one has a field of view of 10 degrees.
Comet siding spring s nucleus a nugget of ice and rock measuring no more than half a kilometer about 1 3 mile is small but the coma is expansive stretching out a million kilometers.
The close encounter between comet siding spring and mars flooded the planet with an invisible tide of charged particles from the comet s coma.
Comet siding spring has crossed the snow and water lines key points when it is close enough for the sun s warmth to activate it.
Nasa s goddard space flight center press release.
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.
Comet c 2013 a1 siding spring position and finder charts.
19 comet c 2013 a1 comet siding spring will pass within about 87 000 miles 139 500 km of mars.
New scientific reports are providing spectacular details on the comet siding spring s close encounter with the planet mars.
The dense inner coma reached the surface of the planet or nearly so.
According to nasa investigators the effects of the encounter on the.
Now that scientists can see the coma they estimate it is roughly 12 000 miles 19 000 kilometers across.
