Tag: Comet Siding Spring

  • Mars spacecraft safe after fortuitous comet encounter

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    The HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took these images of comet Siding Spring, the first resolved images of a long-period comet’s nucleus. HiRISE took the pictures nine minutes apart at a range of 138,000 kilometers (86,000 miles) from the comet, yielding a scale of about 138 meters (150 yards) per pixel. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University…

  • Comet’s flyby of Mars a boon for scientists

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    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS “SPACE PLACE” & USED WITH PERMISSION Artist’s concept of comet Siding Spring buzzing Mars. Credit: NASA The red planet’s brush with Comet Siding Spring Sunday was a close encounter of the best kind for science, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to study a pristine remnant of the solar system’s birth 4.6 billion years ago…