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-- WITH PHOTO -- TO NATIONAL, AND SCIENCE EDITORS:
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Spots Mars-Bound Comet Sprout Multiple
Jets
WASHINGTON, March 27, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA released
Thursday an image of a comet that, on Oct. 19, will pass within 84,000
miles of Mars -- less than half the distance between Earth and our
moon.
The image on the left, captured March 11 by NASA's Hubble Space
Telescope, shows comet C/2013 A1, also called Siding Spring, at a
distance of 353 million miles from Earth. Hubble can't see Siding
Spring's icy nucleus because of its diminutive size. The nucleus is
surrounded by a glowing dust cloud, or COMA, that measures roughly
12,000 miles across.
The right image shows the comet after image processing techniques were
applied to remove the hazy glow of the coma revealing what appear to
be two jets of dust coming off the location of the nucleus in opposite
directions. This observation should allow astronomers to measure the
direction of the nucleus's pole, and axis of rotation.
Hubble also observed Siding Spring on Jan. 21 as Earth was crossing
its orbital plane, which is the path the comet takes as it orbits the
sun. This positioning of the two bodies allowed astronomers to
determine the speed of the dust coming off the nucleus.
"This is critical information that we need to determine whether, and
to what degree, dust grains in the coma of the comet will impact Mars
and spacecraft in the vicinity of Mars," said Jian-Yang Li of the
Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona.
Discovered in January 2013 by Robert H. McNaught at Siding Spring
Observatory, the comet is falling toward the sun along a roughly 1
million year orbit and is now within the radius of Jupiter's orbit.
The comet will make its closest approach to our sun on Oct. 25, at a
distance of 130 million miles - well outside of Earth's orbit. The
comet is not expected to become bright enough to be seen by the naked
eye.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation
between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space
Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble
science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of
Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington.
For images and more information about Hubble, visit:
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO
SOURCE NASA
-0- 03/27/2014
/CONTACT: J.D. Harrington, Headquarters, Washington, 202-358-5241, j.d.harrington@nasa.gov, or Ray Villard, Space Science Telescope Institute, Baltimore, Md., 410-338-4493 / 410-338-4514, Villard@stsci.edu
/Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO
PRN Photo Desk photodesk@prnewswire.com
/Web Site: http://www.nasa.gov
CO: NASA
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0000 03/27/2014 14:19:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com
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