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interesting possibility of possible interactions of the coma of A1 Siding Spring and the tenuous atmosphere of Mars

researchers considered how active Comet A1 Siding Spring may be at the time of closest approach on October 19th, 2014

Discovered early last year by Robert McNaught from the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia

when it was found that it will pass extremely close to Mars later this year.

with a nominal passage of 138,000 kilometres from Mars. That’s about one third the distance from Earth to the Moon, and 17 times closer than the nearest recorded passage of a comet to the Earth, Comet D/1770 L1 Lexell in 1780.

And although the nucleus will safely pass Mars, the brush with its extended atmosphere might just be detectable by the fleet of spacecraft and rovers in service around Mars

NEOWISE and Hubble are already monitoring the comet for enhanced activity

The Opportunity rover is also still functioning, and Mars Odyssey and ESA’s Mars Express are still in orbit around the Red Planet and sending back data

India’s Mars Orbiter Mission and NASA’s MAVEN orbiter arrive just before the comet.

MAVEN was designed to study the upper atmosphere of Mars, and carries an ion-neutral mass spectrometer (NGIMS) which could yield information on the interaction of the coma with the Martian upper atmosphere and ionosphere.

Proposals for using Earth-based assets for further observations of the comet prior to the event in October are still pending

Amateur observers will be able to follow the approach telescopically

It’s also interesting to consider the potential for interactions of the coma with the surfaces of the moons of Mars as well, though the net amount of water vapor expected to be deposited will not be large

UPDATE: Check out this nifty interactive simulator which includes Comet A1 Siding Springs courtesy of the Solar System Scope