Topic: Have Comet will trave,l Once in a life time Event this Sunday
Syntax started this discussion 12 years ago #37,545
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/10/17/comet-siding-spring-headed-for-close-encounter-with-mars-on-sunday/
Last year Comet Siding Spring was predicted to crash into Mars. Now Not''
However its just possible that something we have never observered before, will occur - One atmosphere colliding with another atmosphere. Its going to be difficult to see from Earth ground because this event will occur at 16 degrees just above the horizon and at 11:28 PM PST here in California not a chance to see anything at all.
NASA as well as Japan and India will have huge number of eyes on. Every available ground based Antenna will be aimed at Mars on Sunday. Huge number of Optical telescopes the same - Space based Satellites of many types will have eyes on.
"Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the newly arrived MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) to protect them from dust particles blowing off the comet."
"Both NASA Mars rovers – the gutsy Opportunity (which landed on the planet in 2004) and the newer rover Curiosity – are scheduled to make observations."
Last night yours truly fired up a almost dead NASA GEO and used Globalstar ground Command equipment in Dubbo Australia to hit it with 10 Megawatts of C band and NASA provided a direct patch to unlock a password protected receiver so I could look at telemetry internal and see if it would come alive enough to work as relay for one of the Rovers.
Its now handed back to NASA and my hands are totally off.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/10/17/comet-siding-spring-headed-for-close-encounter-with-mars-on-sunday/
Last year Comet Siding Spring was predicted to crash into Mars. Now Not''
However its just possible that something we have never observered before, will occur - One atmosphere colliding with another atmosphere. Its going to be difficult to see from Earth ground because this event will occur at 16 degrees just above the horizon and at 11:28 PM PST here in California not a chance to see anything at all.
NASA as well as Japan and India will have huge number of eyes on. Every available ground based Antenna will be aimed at Mars on Sunday. Huge number of Optical telescopes the same - Space based Satellites of many types will have eyes on.
"Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the newly arrived MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) to protect them from dust particles blowing off the comet."
"Both NASA Mars rovers – the gutsy Opportunity (which landed on the planet in 2004) and the newer rover Curiosity – are scheduled to make observations."
Last night yours truly fired up a almost dead NASA GEO and used Globalstar ground Command equipment in Dubbo Australia to hit it with 10 Megawatts of C band and NASA provided a direct patch to unlock a password protected receiver so I could look at telemetry internal and see if it would come alive enough to work as relay for one of the Rovers.
Its now handed back to NASA and my hands are totally off.
Comet Siding Spring headed for close encounter with Mars on Sunday
Zoom! Comet Siding Spring – a relatively rare “Oort Cloud” comet – will pass within 88,000 miles of our red planetary neighbor Mars on Sunday, Oct. 19 at about 2:28 p.m. EDT. That distance is one-third the mileage from Earth to the moon. In the cosmic scheme, that’s a close shave. The atmosphere of the comet could interact with the atmosphere of Mars, possibly leading to Martian auroras.
Back here safely on planet Earth, the United States will be basking in afternoon daylight. Even at night, the comet is not visible from Earth with the naked eye. But observatories in Australia, South America and South Africa will have their telescopes aimed up at the night sky and trained on the cosmic passage. NASA and the world’s other space agencies will orient their Earth and Mars satellite assets – and their Martian rovers – to observe Comet Siding Spring.
Break away from the Sunday afternoon football games and go to Slooh.com for live coverage of the comet’s flyby. Slooh coverage starts Sunday at 2:15 p.m.
“Normally you would send spacecraft to a comet and in this case, the comet is coming to the spacecraft,” said Kelly Fast, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center research scientist.
Astronomers commonly describe comets as “dirty snowballs” brimming with ice, dirt and gases like carbon dioxide. Scientists estimate that Comet Siding Spring’s nucleus is about a half-mile to five miles wide, and that it has the mass of a small mountain. It’s traveling at about 126,000 mph, according to NASA.
The Oort Cloud is a swarm of frosty leftovers from the beginning of the solar system, some 4.6 billion years ago. This cloud surrounds our solar system and comets occasionally get bumped out of it and head toward the sun. Comet Siding Spring’s closest approach to the sun – an event called perihelion – is Oct. 25.
Comet Siding Spring will be the first Oort Cloud comet studied up close and personal by spacecraft. NASA is maneuvering the Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the newly arrived MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) to protect them from dust particles blowing off the comet.
Both NASA Mars rovers – the gutsy Opportunity (which landed on the planet in 2004) and the newer rover Curiosity – are scheduled to make observations. With the local flyby of Mars, Curiosity will be heading into dusk while Opportunity will be coming out of dawn, says the space agency.
The Hubble Space Telescope will observe the icy visitor, as will the other space observatories like Kepler, Swift, Spitzer and Chandra. NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, will also track it.
You cannot see this comet with the naked eye. It’s a zero magnitude object from our earthly perspective and it will be about 16 degrees above the horizon at 7:30 p.m. Sunday night. To see it, try a mounted pair of binoculars or a telescope. The comet should be in the vicinity of Mars, which will be in the southwestern sky.
Zoom! Comet Siding Spring – a relatively rare “Oort Cloud” comet – will pass within 88,000 miles of our red planetary neighbor Mars on Sunday, Oct. 19 at about 2:28 p.m. EDT. That distance is one-third the mileage from Earth to the moon. In the cosmic scheme, that’s a close shave. The atmosphere of the comet could interact with the atmosphere of Mars, possibly leading to Martian auroras.
Back here safely on planet Earth, the United States will be basking in afternoon daylight. Even at night, the comet is not visible from Earth with the naked eye. But observatories in Australia, South America and South Africa will have their telescopes aimed up at the night sky and trained on the cosmic passage. NASA and the world’s other space agencies will orient their Earth and Mars satellite assets – and their Martian rovers – to observe Comet Siding Spring.
Break away from the Sunday afternoon football games and go to Slooh.com for live coverage of the comet’s flyby. Slooh coverage starts Sunday at 2:15 p.m.
“Normally you would send spacecraft to a comet and in this case, the comet is coming to the spacecraft,” said Kelly Fast, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center research scientist.
Astronomers commonly describe comets as “dirty snowballs” brimming with ice, dirt and gases like carbon dioxide. Scientists estimate that Comet Siding Spring’s nucleus is about a half-mile to five miles wide, and that it has the mass of a small mountain. It’s traveling at about 126,000 mph, according to NASA.
The Oort Cloud is a swarm of frosty leftovers from the beginning of the solar system, some 4.6 billion years ago. This cloud surrounds our solar system and comets occasionally get bumped out of it and head toward the sun. Comet Siding Spring’s closest approach to the sun – an event called perihelion – is Oct. 25.
Comet Siding Spring will be the first Oort Cloud comet studied up close and personal by spacecraft. NASA is maneuvering the Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the newly arrived MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) to protect them from dust particles blowing off the comet.
Both NASA Mars rovers – the gutsy Opportunity (which landed on the planet in 2004) and the newer rover Curiosity – are scheduled to make observations. With the local flyby of Mars, Curiosity will be heading into dusk while Opportunity will be coming out of dawn, says the space agency.
The Hubble Space Telescope will observe the icy visitor, as will the other space observatories like Kepler, Swift, Spitzer and Chandra. NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, will also track it.
You cannot see this comet with the naked eye. It’s a zero magnitude object from our earthly perspective and it will be about 16 degrees above the horizon at 7:30 p.m. Sunday night. To see it, try a mounted pair of binoculars or a telescope. The comet should be in the vicinity of Mars, which will be in the southwestern sky.
(Edited 1 minute later.)
Syntax (OP) double-posted this 12 years ago, 1 day later[^] [v] #505,923
Today ...Today no one is really sure what will happen on the fly byWhen Atmospheres collide.
http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring/
In from a fantastic evening out n about n now if NASA stops buggin me cause I have done all I can do for them - Its just a tiny teeny bit of help but they do get one hell of a lot of 6 Meter dishes at C L and S band to help out and help is all at no charge which includes me doing it Pro Bono as in not a cent goes into my wallet for what is now a lot of work
Sleep I need Sleep
(Edited 59 seconds later.)