page_title: C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring)
section_title: During comet flyby
hierarchical_section_title: C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) / Gallery / During comet flyby
caption_attribution_description: English: 11.05.2014 Mars Curiosity Rover Views Comet Siding Spring http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=6725 This animation and still image of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring were taken by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover as the comet passed near the red planet on Oct. 19, 2014. The animation consists of 10 exposures of 25 seconds each, taken between 2:33 p.m. PDT (5:33 EDT) and 3:54 p.m. PDT (6:34 EDT) on Oct. 19. The exposures are projected onto a celestial frame. The still is an image from the animation. Most of the specks are electronic noise. The short, straight streaks are stars. In the still image, comet Siding Spring is visible as a faint smear just above and to the right of the brightest streak. In the animation, the comet moves across the image from right to left above the brightest streak. Several other NASA instruments on Mars and in space also imaged comet Siding Spring's Mars flyby. All images are available at http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/. - See more at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=6725#sthash.EpmnBq17.dpuf
context_page_description: C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) is an Oort cloud comet discovered on 3 January 2013 by Robert H. McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory using the 0.5-meter Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope.
  At the time of discovery it was 7.2 AU from the Sun and located in the constellation Lepus. Comet C/2013 A1 probably took millions of years to come from the Oort cloud. After leaving the planetary region of the Solar System, the post-perihelion orbital period is estimated to be roughly 1 million years.
  C/2013 A1 passed the planet Mars very closely on 19 October 2014, at a distance of 140,496.6 ± 4.0 km
  . After its discovery, there was thought to be a chance of a collision with Mars, but this possibility was excluded when its orbit was determined more accurately.
  All NASA Mars orbiters—including 2001 Mars Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and MAVEN—as well as ESA's orbiter, Mars Express, and ISRO's orbiter, the Mars Orbiter Mission, reported a healthy status after the comet flyby on 19 October 2014. During the flyby, orbiters around Mars detected thousands of kilograms per hour of comet dust composed of magnesium, iron, sodium, potassium, manganese, nickel, chromium and zinc.
caption: The Curiosity rover views Comet C/2013 A1 during flyby on 19 October 2014.