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Credit & Copyright: Rolando Ligustri
(CARA Project,
CAST)
Explanation:
This looks like
a near miss but the greenish coma and tail of
Comet
Siding Spring (C/2013 A1) are really
2,000 light-years or so away from the stars of open cluster
Messier 6.
They do appear close together though,
along the same line-of-sight in this gorgeous October 9th
skyscape toward the constellation
Scorpius.
Still, on Sunday, October 19th this comet really will be involved in
a near miss, passing within only
139,500
kilometers of planet Mars.
That's about 10 times closer than any known comet flyby of planet Earth,
and nearly one third the Earth-Moon distance.
While an impact with the nucleus is not a threat
the comet's dust, moving with a speed of about 56 kilometers per second
relative to the Red Planet, and outskirts of its
gaseous coma could interact with the thin Martian atmosphere.
Of course, the comet's close encounter will be followed
intently by spacecraft in
Martian orbit and rovers on the surface.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: comet
Publications with words: comet
See also:
- APOD: 2024 December 16 Á A Kilometer High Cliff on Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko
- APOD: 2024 November 27 Á The Meteor and the Comet
- APOD: 2024 November 11 Á The Unusual Tails of Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas
- APOD: 2024 November 6 Á Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas over the Dolomites
- APOD: 2024 October 21 Á Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS over California
- Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS Flys Away
- Most of Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS