WOW what a gorgeous duo in our sky! Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Springs meets ring galaxy NGC 1291. Both of these images were taken on August 2nd, 2014. The first pic (colour) was taken by Damian Peach. The second image (b&w) showing a bit more of the tail structure was taken by Rolando Ligustri astrobin/111005/ These objects may look close together but in fact the comet is 12 light minutes away and the galaxy a whopping 33 million light years away from us. Discovered in 1826 by James Dunlop, NGC 1291 is a rather interesting galaxy as it has a an unusual inner bar and outer ring structure. Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Springs is *THE* comet of interest at the moment which has NASA currently on their toes due to its very close encounter with Mars on October 19th this year. University Today writes, The comet’s icy nucleus will miss the planet by just 82,000 miles (132,000 km). That’s 17 times closer than the closest recorded Earth-approaching comet, Lexell’s Comet in 1770. Nail biting stuff !!!! Rich Zurek, chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California says, “The hazard is not an impact of the comet nucleus, 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.” Discovered by Rob McNaught in January 2013, Comet Siding Spring should be visible in the Southern Hemisphere through small telescopes and perhaps even binoculars from around the middle of September 2014. It will be in the constellation Ophiuchus. The comets closest approach to Earth will be on October 25, 2014, when it will be 130 million miles (209 million km) distant. Its doubtful that it will reach naked eye visibility. NASA Preps for Nail-biting Comet Flyby of Mars: universetoday/113461/nasa-preps-for-nail-biting-comet-flyby-of-mars/#ixzz39OWUjWlI fallofathousandsuns/comet-siding-spring.html -Suzy (I couldnt make up my mind which of these two glorious pics to post, so you have both!)
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 05:04:37 +0000
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