This composite hubble space telescope image captures the positions of comet siding spring and mars in a never before seen close passage of a comet by the red planet which happened at 2 28 p m.
Comet siding spring mars explosion.
Siding spring s nucleus will come closest to mars around 11 27 a m.
Edt october 19 2014.
Dr fritz helmut hemmerich made this video from 1 n nhuge explosion spotted on mars after comet siding spring passes comet c 2014 a1 r fritz helmut hemmerich.
Comet siding spring plunged the magnetic field around mars into chaos said jared espley a maven science team member at nasa s goddard space flight center in greenbelt maryland.
Hubble images show comet siding spring has passed the snow and water lines the points at which the sun s warmth activates or releases gases and water ice to form the coma and tail.
The comet siding spring whizzed within 87 000 miles of mars close enough for nasa to force its fleet of spacecraft orbiting mars to duck for cover.
Follow comet siding spring at marscomet on october 19 comet siding spring will pass within 88 000 miles of mars just one third of the distance from the e.
Part 2 comet siding spring update.
We think the encounter blew away part of mars upper atmosphere much like a strong solar storm would.
Comet siding spring s dust tail will completely engulf the entire planet when mars travels through it.
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.
Edt hurtling at about 126 000 mph 56 kilometers per second.
A huge electromagnetic explosion was spotted on mars after comet siding spring c 2013 a1 made a very close fly by in its closest approach to the sun before martian gravity flung it back to the oort cloud from when it came.