Hola amigos : A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., El cometa C / 2013 A1 Siding Spring hará un sobrevuelo cercano de Marte el 19 de octubre A una distancia de sólo 87.000 millas, es una falta cercana del Planeta Rojo. Núcleo de Siding Spring vendrá más cerca de Marte alrededor de 14:27 EDT, a toda velocidad a unos 126,000 mph (56 kilómetros por segundo). Esta proximidad será una oportunidad sin precedentes para que los investigadores recogen datos tanto sobre el cometa y su efecto en la atmósfera marciana........
Image Credit:
NASA
Comet C/2013 A1 Siding
Spring will make a close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19. At a distance of only 87,000
miles, it’s a near miss of the Red Planet.
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NASA’s extensive fleet of science assets, particularly those orbiting and
roving Mars, have front row seats to image and study a once-in-a-lifetime comet
flyby on Sunday, Oct. 19.
Comet C/2013 A1, also known as comet Siding Spring, will pass within about
87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) of the Red Planet -- less than half the
distance between Earth and our moon and less than one-tenth the distance of any
known comet flyby of Earth.
Siding Spring’s nucleus will come closest to Mars around 2:27 p.m. EDT,
hurtling at about 126,000 mph (56 kilometers per second). This proximity will
provide an unprecedented opportunity for researchers to gather data on both the
comet and its effect on the Martian atmosphere.
“This is a cosmic science gift that could potentially keep on giving, and the
agency’s diverse science missions will be in full receive mode,” said John
Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. “This particular comet has never before entered the
inner solar system, so it will provide a fresh source of clues to our solar
system's earliest days.”
Siding Spring came from the Oort Cloud, a spherical region of space
surrounding our sun and occupying space at a distance between 5,000 and 100,000
astronomical units. It is a giant swarm of icy objects believed to be material
left over from the formation of the solar system.
Siding Spring will be the first comet from the Oort Cloud to be studied up
close by spacecraft, giving scientists an invaluable opportunity to learn more
about the materials, including water and carbon compounds, that existed during
the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.
Some of the best and most revealing images and science data will come from
assets orbiting and roving the surface of Mars. In preparation for the comet
flyby, NASA maneuvered its Mars Odyssey orbiter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
(MRO), and the newest member of the Mars fleet, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile
EvolutioN (MAVEN), in order to reduce the risk of impact with high-velocity dust
particles coming off the comet.
The period of greatest risk to orbiting spacecraft will start about 90
minutes after the closest approach of the comet's nucleus and will last about 20
minutes, when Mars will come closest to the center of the widening trail of dust
flying from the comet’s nucleus.
"The hazard is not an impact of the comet nucleus itself, but the trail of
debris coming from it. Using constraints provided by Earth-based observations,
the modeling results indicate that the hazard is not as great as first
anticipated. Mars will be right at the edge of the debris cloud, so it might
encounter some of the particles -- or it might not," said Rich Zurek, chief
scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL) in Pasadena, California.
The atmosphere of Mars, though much thinner that Earth's, will shield NASA
Mars rovers Opportunity and Curiosity from comet dust, if any reaches the
planet. Both rovers are scheduled to make observations of the comet.
NASA’s Mars orbiters will gather information before, during and after the
flyby about the size, rotation and activity of the comet's nucleus, the
variability and gas composition of the coma around the nucleus, and the size and
distribution of dust particles in the comet's tail.
Observations of the Martian atmosphere are designed to check for possible
meteor trails, changes in distribution of neutral and charged particles, and
effects of the comet on air temperature and clouds. MAVEN will have a
particularly good opportunity to study the comet, and how its tenuous
atmosphere, or coma, interacts with Mars' upper atmosphere.
Earth-based and space telescopes, including NASA’s iconic Hubble Space
Telescope, also will be in position to observe the unique celestial object. The
agency’s astrophysics space observatories -- Kepler, Swift, Spitzer, Chandra --
and the ground-based Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawaii -- also
will be tracking the event.
NASA’s asteroid hunter, the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey
Explorer (NEOWISE), has been imaging, and will continue to image, the comet as
part of its operations. And the agency’s two Heliophysics spacecraft, Solar
TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) and Solar and Heliophysics
Observatory (SOHO), also will image the comet. The agency’s Balloon Observation
Platform for Planetary Science (BOPPS), a sub-orbital balloon-carried telescope,
already has provided observations of the comet in the lead-up to the close
encounter with Mars.
Images and updates will be posted online before and after the comet flyby.
Several pre-flyby images of Siding Spring, as well as information about the
comet and NASA’s planned observations of the event, are available online at:
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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