Posted on Friday, October 17, 2014
The comet Siding Spring will have a close encounter with the red planet Mars on Sunday, October 19th.
The comet was discovered by Robert H. McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia in 2013.
The comet will be at it's closest approach to mars at 18:28 UT on Sunday getting as close as 139,300 km from the centre of Mars. Although the diameter of the nucleus of the comet is unknown, the diameter of the coma surrounding it has been estimated to be almost 20,000 km across and it will take Mars several hours to pass though the coma.
The comet was discovered by Robert H. McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia in 2013.
The comet will be at it's closest approach to mars at 18:28 UT on Sunday getting as close as 139,300 km from the centre of Mars. Although the diameter of the nucleus of the comet is unknown, the diameter of the coma surrounding it has been estimated to be almost 20,000 km across and it will take Mars several hours to pass though the coma.
Labels: comet, mars, Siding Spring, skywatch