NASA Science Update Comet Siding Spring

Streamed live on Oct 9, 2014

NASA hosted a news briefing to outline the space and Earth-based assets that will have extraordinary opportunities to image and study a comet from relatively close range to Mars on Sunday, Oct. 19.

Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring will miss Mars by only about 88,000 miles (139,500 kilometers). That is less than half the distance between Earth and its moon and less than one-tenth the distance of any known comet flyby of Earth. The comet's nucleus will come closest to Mars at about 11:27 a.m. PDT (2:27 p.m. EDT), hurtling at about 126,000 mph (56 kilometers per second), relative to Mars.

The concerted campaign of observations by multiple spacecraft at Mars and by numerous NASA assets is directed at the comet and its effect on the Martian atmosphere. The observations of the comet may yield fresh clues to our solar system's earliest days more than four billion years ago.

Panelists include:

- Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division (PSD), NASA Headquarters, Washington

- Kelly Fast, program scientist, PSD

- Carey Lisse, senior astrophysicist, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland

- Padma Yanamandra-Fisher, senior research scientist, Space Science Institute, Rancho Cucamonga Branch, California

[fuelityourself]

Appreciate the willingness to discuss all the possibilities, taxpayer money spent well Thanks Again Guys

[BlackSupremist]

dang, dat niqqa dwayne brown sho kno wut he talk bout

[planetpatrick]

GREETINGS FROM LOS ROBLES ASTRONOMY CLUB IN MARACAIBO, VENEZUELA...CONGRATULATIONS !! EXCELLENT PRESENTATION !! VERY GOOD EXPLANATIONS FOR OUR ASTRONOMY STUDENTS HERE !! WERE SO GLAD NASA JPL MAKES SUCH GOOD PRESENTATIONS !!! PLEASE KEEP UP THAT GOOD WORK !! AND PLEASE ...DO ALWAYS INVITE SPECTACULAR  DR KELLY FAST TO YOUR PRESENTATIONS !!PLEASE?? IT WOULD INCREASE  MUCH  MUCH MORE YOUR PUBLIC AUDIENCE!!!

[theguyu]

so preoccupied with mars, what about the reaction with the moons of mars?

[hawkeye]

Mars do have localised magnetic zones and the media a while back speculated that the "atmosphere" of the comet could interact with this localised magnetic fields producing faint auroras. Nothing about that happening was discussed in the briefing. Can I therefore assume this is no longer a possibility?