Whileall the robots were practicing duck’s egg - and - cover to avoid being sandblasted by comet Siding Springsthis weekend , they were also endeavor to catch a coup d’oeil of the case . Here are the first images of comet Siding Springs grazing past Mars and what we ’ve learn so far .
https://gizmodo.com/martian-robots-brace-for-close-encounter-with-comet-sid-1648159011
Comet Siding Spring as seen from the Earth’s surface of Mars by the Opportunity rover during a 50 - second exposure . While the principal - trails reflect the major planet ’s revolution , the comet ’s lead pulls in a different direction due to its own drift . Image credit : NASA / JPL - Caltech / Cornell Univ./ASU / TAMU
When comet Siding Spring slew past Mars on Sunday , it pock the closest encounter of a comet with a planet we ’ve ever observed thatdidn’t lead in a hit . It ’s also the first sentence we ’ve had gamy - resolving power photographic camera on planet place to be able to flat image the nucleus of a long - catamenia comet . While all the robots and satellites were obliterate behind Mars and shifted into prophylactic musical mode to cut the risk of hurt from thetrail of dust , gas pedal , and corpuscle , they were also skin to get a ripe look at this historical consequence . All the satellites emerged intact , and now we ’re set out to see what they find out .
https://gizmodo.com/all-satellites-and-rovers-have-checked-in-as-happy-and-1648459331
Two - vulnerability blink figure of speech highlights the comet ’s movement on October 19 , 2014 . paradigm credit : NASA / JPL - Caltech / Cornell Univ./ASU / TAMU
The Opportunity rover imaged the comet using its panoramic camera . The double is from two and a one-half hours before closest approaching . When the comet was even closer , the mavin above Opportunity were lost to a brightening dawn sky . chance science squad memberMark Lemmon explained his delightat get to see the comet as Opportunity project it :
“ It ’s excitingly fortunate that this comet amount so faithful to Mars to give us a opportunity to study it with the instruments we ’re using to study Mars . The views from Mars rovers , in particular , give us a human perspective , because they are about as sensitive to light as our eyes would be . ”
The satellites around Mars also acquire in on the action . The HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnoissance Orbiter managed to take the first - ever dissolve images of the nucleus of a foresightful - stop comet . While the fuzzy arch good deal does n’t appear as spectacular as the images we ’re used to capture from HiRISE , they ’re already learn us something young .
The two best simulacrum ( pass on , right ) of Comet Siding Spring as seen by HiRISE on the Mars Reconnoissance Orbiter exact nine instant apart . Top images are the comet cell nucleus and shiny comatoseness with full dynamic range ; bottom images are the same barb brightened to make the shadowy outer coma seeable and over - saturating the inner part . Image credit : NASA / JPL - Caltech / University of Arizona
It ’s give out to take weeks and month to properly sort through all the data and learn everything that we can discover from the observations . properly now we can already see the cometic lens nucleus is humble than carry . The previous approximation found on telescope observations for the comet ’s size were on the order of a kilometre in diameter . Now , hold the decide power of HiRISE of 138 meters per pixel at the comet ’s close coming , it appears that the nucleus is but half that size , a wee chunk of dust and ice for causing so much tizzy !
Mars
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