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Home -> Astronomy News -> Comets 2013 -> Comet C/2013 A1 (SIDING SPRING)
Post Info TOPIC: Comet C/2013 A1 (SIDING SPRING)
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RE: Comet C/2013 A1 (SIDING SPRING)
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Mars probe to get rare view of comet

On 19 October, Comet Siding Spring will swoop just 135,000 kilometres above the Martian surface. Thats less than half the distance between Earth and the Moon. And because the comet is on its first trip to the inner Solar System, the gas and dust that have been frozen to its surface for billions of years are finally warming up and spraying off.
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Swift satellite photos capture comet racing toward a close encounter with Mars

Photos of a comet racing toward an astonishingly close encounter with Mars are helping scientists to better estimate the comet's size, according to a NASA team that includes Penn State astronomers. The photos were made with a telescope on board NASA's Swift satellite, for which Penn State controls the science and flight operations from the Mission Operations Center at the University Park campus.
The photos captured by Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope are the first to reveal how much water the comet named Siding Spring is producing as it is beginning to get heated up by the sun during its first-known voyage through our inner solar system. The comet is named after the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, which first detected it a year and a half ago.
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Title: Delivery of dust grains from comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) to Mars
Author: Pasquale Tricarico, Nalin H. Samarasinha, Mark V. Sykes, Jian-Yang Li, Tony L. Farnham, Michael S.P. Kelley, Davide Farnocchia, Rachel Stevenson, James M. Bauer, Robert E. Lock

Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) will have a close encounter with Mars on October 19, 2014. We model the dynamical evolution of dust grains from the time of their ejection from the comet nucleus to the Mars close encounter, and determine the flux at Mars. Constraints on the ejection velocity from Hubble Space Telescope observations indicate that the bulk of the grains will likely miss Mars, although it is possible that a few-percent of grains with higher velocities will reach Mars, peaking approximately 90--100 minutes after the close approach of the nucleus, and consisting mostly of millimeter-radius grains ejected from the comet nucleus at a heliocentric distance of approximately 9~AU or larger. At higher velocities, younger grains from sub-millimeter to several millimeter can reach Mars too, although an even smaller fraction of grains is expected have these velocities, with negligible effect on the peak timing. Using NEOWISE observations of the comet, we can estimate that the maximum fluence will be of the order of 10^-7 grains/m2. We include a detailed analysis of how the expected fluence depends on the grain density, ejection velocity, and size-frequency distribution, to account for current model uncertainties and in preparation of possible refined model values in the near future.

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Title: Trajectory analysis for the nucleus and dust of comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring)
Author: Davide Farnocchia, Steven R. Chesley, Paul W. Chodas, Pasquale Tricarico, Michael S. P. Kelley, Tony L. Farnham

Comet C/2013 A1 (siding Spring) will experience a high velocity encounter with Mars on October 19, 2014 at a distance of 135,000 km +- 5000 km from the planet center. We present a comprehensive analysis of the trajectory of both the comet nucleus and the dust tail. The nucleus of C/2013 A1 cannot impact on Mars even in the case of unexpectedly large nongravitational perturbations. Furthermore, we compute the required ejection velocities for the dust grains of the tail to reach Mars as a function of particle radius and density and heliocentric distance of the ejection. A comparison between our results and the most current modelling of the ejection velocities suggests that impacts are possible only for millimetre to centimetre size particles released more than 13 au from the Sun. However, this level of cometary activity that far from the Sun is considered extremely unlikely. The arrival time of these particles spans a 20-minute time interval centred at October 19, 2014 at 20:09 TDB, i.e., around the time that Mars crosses the orbital plane of C/2013 A1. Ejection velocities larger than currently estimated by a factor >2 would allow impacts for smaller particles ejected as close as 3 au from the Sun. These particles would reach Mars from 43 to 130 min after the nominal close approach epoch of the purely gravitational trajectory of the nucleus.

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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Spots Mars-Bound Comet Sprout Multiple Jets

NASA released Thursday an image of a comet that, on Oct. 19, will pass within 84,000 miles of Mars -- less than half the distance between Earth and our moon.
The image on the left, captured March 11 by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows comet C/2013 A1, also called Siding Spring, at a distance of 353 million miles from Earth. Hubble can't see Siding Spring's icy nucleus because of its diminutive size. The nucleus is surrounded by a glowing dust cloud, or COMA, that measures roughly 12,000 miles across.
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NASA Preparing for 2014 Comet Watch at Mars

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Comet C/2013 A1 that will pass extremely close to Mars on 19 October 2014
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Comet to Make Close Flyby of Red Planet in October 2014

New observations of comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) have allowed NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. to further refine the comet's orbit.
Based on data through April 7, 2013, the latest orbital plot places the comet's closest approach to Mars slightly closer than previous estimates, at about 110,000 kilometers. At the same time, the new data set now significantly reduces the probability the comet will impact the Red Planet, from about 1 in 8,000 to about 1 in 120,000. 
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Collision Course? A Comet Heads for Mars

"There is a small but non-negligible chance that Comet 2013 A1 will strike Mars next year in October of 2014," says Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at JPL.  "Current solutions put the odds of impact at 1 in 2000."

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Ephemeris

Date   (UT)  HR:MN     R.A._(ICRF/J2000.0)  DEC  Mag
 2014-Sep-02 00:00     23 16 07.36 -74 27 54.3   7.80
 2014-Sep-03 00:00     22 44 39.52 -74 41 13.6   7.77
 2014-Sep-04 00:00     22 12 42.17 -74 36 55.2   7.75
 2014-Sep-05 00:00     21 41 32.91 -74 15 01.4   7.73
 2014-Sep-06 00:00     21 12 18.67 -73 36 42.5   7.71
 2014-Sep-07 00:00     20 45 43.75 -72 43 58.2   7.70
 2014-Sep-08 00:00     20 22 07.60 -71 39 12.7   7.69
 2014-Sep-09 00:00     20 01 29.90 -70 24 52.5   7.68
 2014-Sep-10 00:00     19 43 38.05 -69 03 12.4   7.68
 2014-Sep-11 00:00     19 28 13.74 -67 36 09.2   7.68
 2014-Sep-12 00:00     19 14 57.26 -66 05 20.8   7.68
 2014-Sep-13 00:00     19 03 29.90 -64 32 07.3   7.68
 2014-Sep-14 00:00     18 53 35.00 -62 57 33.8   7.69
 2014-Sep-15 00:00     18 44 58.25 -61 22 32.4   7.69
 2014-Sep-16 00:00     18 37 27.60 -59 47 45.1   7.71
 2014-Sep-17 00:00     18 30 53.00 -58 13 44.9   7.72
 2014-Sep-18 00:00     18 25 06.09 -56 40 58.2   7.73
 2014-Sep-19 00:00     18 19 59.95 -55 09 45.4   7.75
 2014-Sep-20 00:00     18 15 28.84 -53 40 22.4   7.77
 2014-Sep-21 00:00     18 11 27.95 -52 13 01.0   7.78
 2014-Sep-22 00:00     18 07 53.28 -50 47 49.8   7.80
 2014-Sep-23 00:00     18 04 41.46 -49 24 54.9   7.83
 2014-Sep-24 00:00     18 01 49.64 -48 04 20.1   7.85
 2014-Sep-25 00:00     17 59 15.41 -46 46 07.4   7.87
 2014-Sep-26 00:00     17 56 56.72 -45 30 17.2   7.89
 2014-Sep-27 00:00     17 54 51.79 -44 16 49.1   7.92
 2014-Sep-28 00:00     17 52 59.13 -43 05 41.3   7.94
 2014-Sep-29 00:00     17 51 17.41 -41 56 51.5   7.97
 2014-Sep-30 00:00     17 49 45.50 -40 50 16.7   7.99
 2014-Oct-01 00:00     17 48 22.40 -39 45 53.4   8.02
 2014-Oct-02 00:00     17 47 07.26 -38 43 37.9   8.05
 2014-Oct-03 00:00     17 45 59.31 -37 43 26.2   8.07
 2014-Oct-04 00:00     17 44 57.87 -36 45 14.0   8.10
 2014-Oct-05 00:00     17 44 02.35 -35 48 57.1   8.13
 2014-Oct-06 00:00     17 43 12.24 -34 54 31.2   8.15
 2014-Oct-07 00:00     17 42 27.06 -34 01 51.9   8.18
 2014-Oct-08 00:00     17 41 46.41 -33 10 54.9   8.21
 2014-Oct-09 00:00     17 41 09.91 -32 21 36.1   8.23
 2014-Oct-10 00:00     17 40 37.24 -31 33 51.3   8.26
 2014-Oct-11 00:00     17 40 08.09 -30 47 36.6   8.29
 2014-Oct-12 00:00     17 39 42.22 -30 02 47.9   8.31
 2014-Oct-13 00:00     17 39 19.36 -29 19 21.6   8.34
 2014-Oct-14 00:00     17 38 59.32 -28 37 14.1   8.37
 2014-Oct-15 00:00     17 38 41.90 -27 56 21.8   8.39
 2014-Oct-16 00:00     17 38 26.91 -27 16 41.4   8.42
 2014-Oct-17 00:00     17 38 14.19 -26 38 09.6   8.45
 2014-Oct-18 00:00     17 38 03.59 -26 00 43.4   8.47
 2014-Oct-19 00:00     17 37 54.97 -25 24 19.7   8.50
 2014-Oct-20 00:00     17 37 48.21 -24 48 55.6   8.53
 2014-Oct-21 00:00     17 37 43.23 -24 14 27.8   8.55
 2014-Oct-22 00:00     17 37 39.87 -23 40 54.4   8.58
 2014-Oct-23 00:00     17 37 38.06 -23 08 12.9   8.61
 2014-Oct-24 00:00     17 37 37.68 -22 36 21.0   8.63
 2014-Oct-25 00:00     17 37 38.65 -22 05 16.3   8.66
 2014-Oct-26 00:00     17 37 40.90 -21 34 56.7   8.68
 2014-Oct-27 00:00     17 37 44.35 -21 05 20.2   8.71
 2014-Oct-28 00:00     17 37 48.92 -20 36 24.6   8.74
 2014-Oct-29 00:00     17 37 54.56 -20 08 08.2   8.76
 2014-Oct-30 00:00     17 38 01.21 -19 40 29.1   8.79
 2014-Oct-31 00:00     17 38 08.80 -19 13 25.6   8.81
 2014-Nov-01 00:00     17 38 17.28 -18 46 56.0   8.84
 2014-Nov-02 00:00     17 38 26.60 -18 20 58.7   8.87
 2014-Nov-03 00:00     17 38 36.73 -17 55 32.3   8.89
 2014-Nov-04 00:00     17 38 47.61 -17 30 35.3   8.92
 2014-Nov-05 00:00     17 38 59.21 -17 06 06.2   8.94
 2014-Nov-06 00:00     17 39 11.50 -16 42 03.9   8.97
 2014-Nov-07 00:00     17 39 24.44 -16 18 27.0   8.99
 2014-Nov-08 00:00     17 39 38.00 -15 55 14.3   9.02
 2014-Nov-09 00:00     17 39 52.16 -15 32 24.6   9.05
 2014-Nov-10 00:00     17 40 06.89 -15 09 56.9   9.07
 2014-Nov-11 00:00     17 40 22.16 -14 47 50.0   9.10
 2014-Nov-12 00:00     17 40 37.95 -14 26 03.0   9.12
 2014-Nov-13 00:00     17 40 54.24 -14 04 34.8   9.15
 2014-Nov-14 00:00     17 41 11.01 -13 43 24.5   9.17
 2014-Nov-15 00:00     17 41 28.23 -13 22 31.2   9.20
 2014-Nov-16 00:00     17 41 45.89 -13 01 53.9   9.22
 2014-Nov-17 00:00     17 42 03.97 -12 41 31.9   9.25
 2014-Nov-18 00:00     17 42 22.44 -12 21 24.3   9.27
 2014-Nov-19 00:00     17 42 41.29 -12 01 30.3   9.30
 2014-Nov-20 00:00     17 43 00.49 -11 41 49.1   9.32
 2014-Nov-21 00:00     17 43 20.04 -11 22 20.1   9.35
 2014-Nov-22 00:00     17 43 39.91 -11 03 02.4   9.38
 2014-Nov-23 00:00     17 44 00.09 -10 43 55.4   9.40
 2014-Nov-24 00:00     17 44 20.55 -10 24 58.3   9.43
 2014-Nov-25 00:00     17 44 41.28 -10 06 10.7   9.45
 2014-Nov-26 00:00     17 45 02.26 -09 47 31.7   9.48
 2014-Nov-27 00:00     17 45 23.47 -09 29 00.8   9.50
 2014-Nov-28 00:00     17 45 44.91 -09 10 37.4   9.53
 2014-Nov-29 00:00     17 46 06.54 -08 52 20.9   9.55


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