for those interested in the comet ISON: Earth and Mars Close Approaches Comet ISON makes two interesting close approaches. The first, in October 2013, we will watch the comet pass by Mars at the small distance of only 0.07 AU. This distance is small on the grand scale of the Solar System, but it is still 10 million kilometers. The close encounter may make comet ISON observable to NASA and ESAs spacecraft orbiting Mars. Maybe we can even hope to see a picture of ISON from NASAs Curiosity rover? Although there is no possibility of such a close approach between the Earth and comet, the second close approach I want to bring up will be between the comets orbit and the Earth. In January 2014, the Earth will swing past a part of space that Comet ISON already traveled through, at a small distance of only 0.03 AU. This encounter brings up the possibility of a meteor shower on Earth. Meteor showers from Oort Cloud comets are rare events indeed. Stay tuned while astronomers consider this possibility.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 05:52:12 +0000
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