Astronomers are preparing for a rare flyby of a comet that will come
within 87,000 miles of Mars on October 19.
by John
Tyburski
Copyright © Daily
Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
In space,
where large objects hurtle in past one another at hundreds of thousands of
miles per hour, a distance has a tendency to shrink compared to how we perceive
it here on Earth. On October 19, comet C/2013 A1, or Siding Spring, will pass
Mars at a distance of approximately 87,000 miles, less than half the distance
between the Earth and its moon.
NASA
scientists are bracing for a “once-in-a-lifetime” event with the comet hurtling
near its Mars rovers and orbiters at 126,000 miles per hour. It will reach its
closest distance to Mars at 2:27 p.m. Eastern Time, say NASA experts.
The
nucleus of the comet will miss the orbiters working around Mars, but the
material shedded by the comet as it passes by raises concerns, as it will crash
toward Mars at 35 miles per second. At that velocity, a particle one-fiftieth
of an inch in diameter can knock an orbiter out.
NASA
anticipates that the Mars atmosphere, while thinner than that of the Earth,
will protect the rovers Curiosity and Opportunity from damage by shed
particles. The three orbiting craft, however, will have no such protection.
NASA has three orbiters currently working near Mars: Mars Odyssey, Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter, and Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution orbiter.
These will be maneuvered to the opposite side of the planet during and for a
short while after the comet flyby.
The
proximity of the comet to Mars will provide for an unprecedented opportunity
for astronomers to study the comet and its effect on the Martian atmosphere.
“This is a
cosmic science gift that could potentially keep on giving, and the agency’s
diverse science missions will be in full receive mode,” said John Grunsfeld,
astronaut and associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
“This particular comet has never before entered the inner solar system, so it
will provide a fresh source of clues to our solar system’s earliest days.”
Experts
say that the Siding Spring comet is from the “Oort Cloud,” a proposed region of
space surrounding our sun from which many comets are thought to originate.
Siding Spring is made of a swarm of icy objects believed to be remnants of the
birth of our solar system.
Scientists
will be observing and the comet with Earth- and space-based telescopes
including the Hubble Space Telescope, along with the Chandra, Kepler, Spitzer,
and Swift telescopes. Terrestrial observations will be made via the Infrared
Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The comet’s approach has been
monitored using NASA’s asteroid-hunter, the Near-Earth Object Wide-field
Infrared Survey Explorer, which will also monitor the flyby.
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