Comet Siding Spring makes close pass by Mars

Mars and its squadron of spacecraft have emerged unscathed after being buzzed by comet Siding Spring.

On October 19, the comet whizzed past the Red Planet at a little more than 20,000 kilometers per hour. At its closest, Siding Spring was only 139,500 kilometers, roughly a third the Earth-moon distance, from the planet’s surface, meaning it probably put on quite a show for rovers like Curiosity. Other spacecraft were also eyeing Siding Spring from a safe location behind the Red Planet.

Data from the probes will be beamed back to Earth over the next few days and could give astronomers their most detailed look yet at a comet from the far-off Oort cloud.

For more on spacecrafts’ close encounters with comets, read SN‘s feature, “Rosetta readies for its close rendezvous with a comet.”