Comet Siding Spring Orbit

Several spacecraft from nasa europe and india were expected to track the comet s approach from their positions in orbit.

Comet siding spring orbit.

To further refine the comet s orbit. Orbit of comet siding spring. Images of the comet taken in march 2010 by n howes using the faulkes telescope. Scientists are in the early stages of assembling a.

The comet was visible with binoculars until january 2010. C 2013 a1 passed the planet. Luckily asteroid and comet hunter robert h. 19 2014 the nucleus of comet c 2013 a1 siding spring missed mars by about one third of the distance between earth and earth s moon or one tenth the distance at which any identified comet has flown past earth.

C 2007 q3 siding spring is an oort cloud comet that was discovered by donna burton in 2007 at siding spring observatory in new south wales australia. The most interesting thing about c 2013 a1 s orbit is that it will come very close to mars on october 19 2014. C 2013 a1 is an oort cloud comet discovered on 3 january 2013 by robert h. It spends the vast majority of its life in the oort cloud.

Light takes 2 hours 28 minutes and 26 7935 seconds to travel from comet c 2013 a1 siding spring and arrive to us. 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 68 000 miles 110 000 kilometers. Siding spring came within 1 2 astronomical units of earth and 2 25 au of the sun on october 7 2009. Comet siding spring flew about 87 000 miles from mars during the encounter.

That presented a unique science opportunity for the five orbiting spacecraft and two rovers at the red planet. At the time of discovery it was 7 2 au from the sun and located in the constellation lepus. After leaving the planetary region of the solar system the post perihelion orbital period is estimated to be roughly 1 million years. 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.

This comet sneaked up on us because it was coming in from underneath the plane of earth s orbit. Mcnaught at siding spring observatory using the 0 5 meter uppsala southern schmidt telescope. A close encounter between mars and comet c 2013 a1 siding spring in 2014 is creating both opportunity and anxiety in scientific circles. At the time of its discovery comet siding spring was farther from the sun than jupiter.

The distance of comet c 2013 a1 siding spring from earth is currently 2 670 189 521 kilometers equivalent to 17 849114 astronomical units. Mcnaught spotted it with the constellation lepus in the star background. Its orbital path can be seen in the movie below. Comet c 2013 a1 probably took millions of years to come from the oort cloud.