Researchers observe comet flyby effects on Martian atmosphere
A "once-in-a-lifetime" chance to watch a comet flying close to Mars gave a unique insight into the effect of such a near miss on a planet's atmosphere, according to a University of Leeds academic. Professor John Plane, a member of the Atmospheric and Planetary Chemistry group in the University's Faculty of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, collaborated in the analysis and interpretation of observations made with NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft of Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring's flyby on October 19. Read more
A pristine distant comet created a once-in-8-million-year fireworks show above Mars last month. But no one got to see it live. New NASA data from satellites circling Mars shows that when the comet named Siding Spring skimmed the red planet, tons of comet dust bombarded the Martian sky with thousands of fireballs an hour. It warped the Martian atmosphere leaving all sorts of metals and an eerie yellow afterglow on Oct. 19. Read more
First Images of a Comet from a Stratospheric Balloon
These three images of C/2013 (Comet Siding Spring) were taken by the Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science (BOPPS) on September 26, 2014. The comet was 114 million miles from Mars when these images were taken, approximately three weeks before its close encounter with that planet. BOPPS was approximately 127,000 feet above Earth, observing comets, asteroids and stars during its 17-hour flight. Read more
MAVEN Ultraviolet Image of Comet Siding Spring's Hydrogen Coma
NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft obtained this ultraviolet image of hydrogen surrounding comet Siding Spring on Friday, Oct. 17, two days before the comet's closest approach to Mars. The Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument imaged the comet at a distance of 8.5 million kilometres. Read more
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured images of a comet passing much closer to Mars than any previous known comet flyby of Earth or Mars. The images of comet Siding Spring were taken against a backdrop of the pre-dawn Martian sky on Sunday (Oct. 19). Read more
Scientists should get a grandstand view of a comet on Sunday when it makes a dramatic flyby of Mars. The icy object, known as Siding Spring, will miss the Red Planet by what is - in astronomical terms - just a hair's breadth, or 139,500km. Read more
These three images show emission from the dust in the coma surrounding the nucleus of Comet C/2013 A1 - also known as Comet Siding Spring - as observed at three different far-infrared wavelengths with ESA's Herschel space observatory. Read more