Duck and hide.

• by p.titchin

  Another Oort belt visitor! Comet 'Siding Spring' passing Mars today 87,000 miles. Best the Mars orbiting assetts stay out of the way! ~ Pete

  Posted October 19, 2014 2:04 PM

• by Kitharode moderator

  From Wikipedia: "C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) is an Oort cloud comet discovered on 3 January 2013 by Robert H. McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory using the 0.5-meter (20 in) Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope. At the time of discovery it was 7.2 AU from the Sun and located in the constellation Lepus. Comet C/2013 A1 probably took millions of years to come from the Oort cloud. After leaving the planetary region of the Solar System, the post-perihelion orbital period (epoch 2050) is estimated to be roughly 1 million years.

  C/2013 A1 will pass the planet Mars very closely on 19 October 2014. After its discovery, there was initially thought to be a chance of a collision with Mars, but this possibility was excluded when the orbit was subsequently determined better".

  Apparently NASA are taking steps to ensure its assets remain safe. Don't think there's much chance of a view from Todmorden - the weather is foul right now. 😦

  Posted October 19, 2014 3:22 PM

• by mschwamb scientist, translator

  An update on HiRISE and MRO - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4344

  Posted October 20, 2014 12:47 AM