SKY WATCHER EVENT / MARS COMET UAATN Once In A Million Years Event Unfold In The Skies THIS WEEKEND! Oct 19th Siding Spring (comets name) make its first known visit to the inner solar system. Look to the skies this weekend as an event unfolds that only happens once ever million years or so. In fact, this event will be the first ever in recorded history! A comet as hefty as a small mountain will pass extremely close to Mars on Sunday, approaching within 87,000 miles at a speed of 126,000 mph. NASA’s five robotic explorers at Mars — three orbiters and two rovers — are being repurposed to witness a comet named Siding Spring make its first known visit to the inner solar system. The orbiting craft will attempt to observe the incoming iceball, then hide behind Mars for protection from potentially dangerous dusty debris in the comet tail. What is so special about the Siding Spring comet? First, no comet has come anywhere near this close to Earth in recorded history. Second, this comet is from the Oort cloud. The Oort cloud is located on the extreme fringe of the solar system. It formed during the first million or two years of the solar system’s birth 4.6 billion years ago and, until now, ventured no closer to the sun than perhaps the orbits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune. It comes around every one or more million years. Therefore, this is the first time NASA will have the chance to see an Oort cloud coment up close. The close flyby is made all the more exciting since we have rovers and orbiters currently residing on Mars. By studying Siding Spring’s composition and structure, scientists hope to learn more about how the planets formed. Scientists also are keen to spot any changes to the comet or Mars due to the close approach. NASA’s newly arrived Maven spacecraft, for instance, will compare the upper atmosphere before and after it passes. The scientific community will have the opportunity to gain knowledge that was previously impossible to obtain. “We may never see another Oort cloud comet breeze past Mars so closely again.” The comet will able to be seen from Earth. However, a sky gazer will need a telescope or binoculars to see the fast moving comet. Sadly for those of us in the Northern Hemosphere, the best viewing will be in the south such as Australia and South America. The Virtual Telescope Project will also host a webcast on Oct. 19 starting at 12:45 p.m. EDT (1645 GMT). You can watch the webcast here: virtualtelescope.eu/webtv/ A window of the webcast will appear below before the start time as well.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 17:52:04 +0000
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