Hubble Observes Comet Siding Spring Flyby with Mars On Sunday, October 19th, the Hubble Space Telescope was pointed at Mars to observe the close approach of Comet Siding Spring. The comet passed by Mars at approximately 87,000 miles (about one-third of the distance between Earth and the Moon). At that time, the comet and Mars were approximately 149 million miles from Earth. This is a photo composite of the encounter of comet Siding Spring with Mars on October 19, 2014. Separate Hubble Space Telescope images of Mars and the comet have been combined together into a single the picture. This is a composite image because a single exposure of the stellar background, comet Siding Spring, and Mars would be problematic because the objects are all moving with respect to each other and the background stars. Hubble can only track one planetary target at a time. Also, Mars is actually 10,000 times brighter than the comet, and the exposure here has been adjusted so that details on the Red Planet can be seen. For more information on the comet flyby and to learn more about the images themselves, please join us for our weekly Hubble Hangout! https://youtube/watch?v=WXIqZiZ5ZNk Read more here: hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2014/45
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 16:00:48 +0000
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