19 at a distance of approximately 87 000 miles.
Comet siding spring update.
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.
Siding spring officially designated comet c 2013 a1 made its closest approach to mars at 2 28 p m.
C 2013 a1 siding spring is an oort cloud comet discovered on 3 january 2013 by robert h.
Nasa s extensive fleet of science assets particularly those orbiting and roving mars have front row seats to image and study this once in a lifetime flyby.
Hurtling through space at about 35 miles 56 kilometers per second comet siding spring c 2013 a1 will sweep very close to the planet mars today.
Mcnaught achieved this triumph on january 3 2013 using the 0 5 meter 20 inch uppsala schmidt telescope at siding spring observatory in new south wales australia.
An illustration by nasa depicts the comet siding spring 2013 a1 traveling toward mars a comet the size of a small mountain and.
19 comet c 2013 a1 comet siding spring will pass within about 87 000 miles 139 500 km of mars.
Comet siding spring whizzes past mars update by jenny vaughan.
Comet buzzes mars in once in a lifetime flyby the comet siding spring has successfully zoomed by mars in a super rare close encounter that is one for the history books.
At the time of its discovery comet siding spring was farther from the sun than jupiter about 7 2 times farther away from the sun than earth.
Update october 18 2014.